Recombinant
by Petite Doll
Summary: Something strange is revealed about Ryoma, and the Seigaku regulars will never be the same! aka: "Why couldn't you have been magical GIRLS?" AU, but not extreme. UPDATED!
1. Prologue

**Title**: Recombinant

**Author**: Dolly

**Rating**: PG to PG-13.

**Genre**: Adventure, Fantasy, AU (or rather, Alternate History/Timeline)

**Characters**: Echizen, Fuji, Tezuka (primary); Tachibana An, Tachibana Kippei, Momoshiro (secondary); and the rest of Seigaku.

**Timeline**: this story starts sometime around what would have been the first fifty episodes of the anime. It takes place after the beginning of the school year (April), but before summer vacation (mid-July).

**Warnings:** General strangeness. Self-beta'd.

**Summary:** "Why couldn't you have been magical _girls_?"

**Status:** Complete. Started on May 13 and finished on August 24, 2006.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Prince of Tennis, and am writing this only for entertainment.

**Feedback**: is most appreciated._ Constructive_ criticism is also appreciated, preferably via PM or email but in a review is okay too. :) No flames please!

**Author's Notes**: This story is AU (or Alternate History/Timeline, to be specific) in that something about one character's background has been altered. The basic setting of this story is otherwise pretty much the same as in PoT canon, though some other details may vary, in part due to the "ripple effect". As you may have guessed, the change I made to canon brings this story into the realm of fantasy. So though the boys are still their tennis-playing selves like they would be in canon, the plot of this story does not revolve around tennis.

----- indicates a scene change and/or POV change, and is also at the end of each chapter.

**Prologue **

_Northern Iraq: June 16, 1939_

The air was still and stifling, laden down with the oppressive heat that summers in the region inevitably brought. But while all of Iraq may have sweltered, the tunnels of the monstrous temple that they were excavating were unnaturally cool. Even though it was mostly underground, that alone could not account for the chill that permeated the ancient structure's walls.

"Just look at these texts – they're nearly five hundred years old, yet they look as though they were written just yesterday!" One of the archaeologists from the Japanese team exclaimed, a dumbfounded expression on his dust-covered face. "And these pictures on the covers, they're almost just like what we found in the wall paintings up top. Don't you think so, Nanjou-san?"

Responding to his current name, the man tossed his red locks to the side and obligingly peered over his colleague's shoulder to look. "I do believe you're right, Sawaragi-san," he said with a benign smile. "And such lovely art it is." He ran his fingers lightly over the book, his lips curling slightly at the image of a five-pointed star with a pair of feathered wings in the background. Murmuring an excuse, he rose, and continued farther down into the bowels of the temple, expertly brushing off or diverting any further interruptions until he found himself alone.

This had to be the place.

Stopping as he reached what appeared to be a dead end to the passageway, he raised a hand to the dirt wall in front of him and carefully moved it across the surface, holding up a flashlight with his other hand. After a few moments, an unreadable symbol flared bright white under his hand, and he flinched as red-hot pain coursed through his entire arm. But rather than withdrawing his hand, he pressed it closer to the symbol, gritting his teeth as he felt his flesh sear. His palm pressed the symbol into the wall, and the pain ceased as the light of the symbol dimmed.

A moment passed in silence, and then dust and dirt rained down on him as the whole tunnel shook. Slowly, the dead-end of the tunnel swung open, revealing a cavernous stone chamber that was, against all logic, lit. Without hesitating, he stepped inside, not taking the time to give the shelves of artifacts or the piles of scrolls more than a cursory glance. Rather than taking the stairs that circled the carved-out center of the chamber, he simply leaped down and landed gracefully at the bottom.

His breath caught in anticipation as black eyes came to rest on his quarry. There _she _was, suspended in a perfectly clear encasement of crystal that gave off a faint luminescence. Fair skinned and sylph-like in figure, the slumbering girl hardly looked dangerous. And how he longed to run his fingers through the lovely creature's emerald tresses and discover the many ways he could make her cry.

But the rumbling of the chamber as it opened had probably alerted the others, and they would surely be arriving soon with their tools and their notebooks and their bothersome clatter. So, regrettably, she would have to be destroyed quickly. He smiled regretfully as a small ball of red light began to form in his hands, and he murmured a quiet chant as he sent it flying into the crystal.

The girl remained still upon its impact, though he was gratified to see a glimpse of gold as her eyes flashed open for the briefest of moments before they closed for the last time. The small light from the crystal dimmed and then vanished, and the entire chamber was plunged into darkness.

With a sigh, he pulled out his flashlight and headed back to the chamber's entrance, just in time to see several breathless archaeologists rushing towards him. He put on an excited expression that mirrored theirs. "It's the find of the century!" he told them as he pointed them into the chamber. He then slipped out of the tunnels with ease, disregarded by the archaeologists in the flurry of activity surrounding their newest discovery.

But whatever else may have been in the chamber, it was nothing important; not anymore. He had made sure of that.

-------

Japanese Vocabulary:

_-san_ – added to the end of a name. Used when talking to someone that is your senior or better, or to address someone respectfully. Similar to Mr./Ms.

Prologue Notes:

This short piece may seem unrelated to PoT, but it is important to the plot later on so please bear with me. The chapters are all much longer than this, and are set in normal present time with the familiar PoT characters. Any OC's you see in this story are there for the plot, not as main characters! And Iraq was chosen for the setting here because of the region's ancient history, rather than any goings-on in the modern day country. And speaking of ancient history, I'm rather sketchy on mine. :P Heck, so are the historians!

**_Watch this space!_** At the end of most chapters I will include additional notes, but you don't need to read them unless there's something in the chapter that you're wondering about or that you think is non-canon and/or would like explained. ;) In these notes I'll address characterization and various small details as well.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Slender hands ran lovingly across yellowed text, and a single manicured finger came to rest lightly on the top of the page. A small smile pulled at the corners of the girl's lips as she seated herself in the center of the symbols, which she had so painstakingly drawn out on the cold stone floor.

A wave of her hand and a whispered word, and the tall candles were lit all around. Pressing her fingers together to form a sign, she closed her eyes and began to chant.

"_Per auctorita fidelis voco orior en terra. Per auctorita fidelis voco orior en terra. Per auctorita . . . ."_

And so it continued.

The only movement in the cavernous hall was that of her lips, until a chill wind began to pick up.

-----

"Oi, Echizen, hurry up! I'll be waiting by the bike racks." Momoshiro gave Ryoma a friendly if not overzealous clap on the shoulder, and then headed out of Seigaku Tennis Club's locker room.

"Okay," Ryoma replied as he buttoned his uniform shirt. A slight frown crossed his features as he stuffed his jersey into his bag, recalling how he had nearly been beaten by one of the Fudomine players. Still, though, he thought that sharing a practice with the other team had been kind of fun.

"Wah, those Fudomine players are tough! I can't believe me and Oishi lost a match with them!" Eiji lamented.

"It was only one out of three," Kawamura said reassuringly. "And it sure was good practice, don't you think?"

"I guess it was pretty fun," Eiji admitted, grinning. "Did you have fun too, Ochibi-chan?"

"Fudomine's not bad." Ryoma shrugged, and slipped on his uniform jacket.

"That's the spirit!" Eiji exclaimed, and then threw his arms around Ryoma from behind. Ryoma felt a jolt, and sent Eiji an annoyed look. "You should learn to socialize better with the other teams though," Eiji said sagely after an uncharacteristic moment of silence. "Like Fuji does! He's always so polite to the other players, though they don't talk to him much. I wonder why?" Eiji carried on, still holding onto Ryoma.

"Eiji-senpai!" Ryoma complained, only to be rescued as Kawamura touched them both lightly on their shoulders, causing Eiji to get off of him. Kawamura looked almost surprised for some reason, though continued on to speak.

"You know, my dad gave me the afternoon off since the shop is closed for repairs," Kawamura began hesitantly. "How about we go for burgers? My treat."

"Sounds great, Taka-san!" Eiji replied enthusiastically.

"I can't," Ryoma said, regretting the loss of an opportunity for free food. "I'm going somewhere with Momo-senpai." Slinging his bag over his shoulder, Ryoma headed towards the door. As he stepped around the corner of the lockers, though, he nearly tripped over Kaidoh, who was sitting on the floor in an awkward position and appeared to be doing something with his shoe.

The second-year's head shot up at the contact, and he gave Ryoma a strange look before the usual glare settled on his face. "Watch where you're going, squirt," he grumbled.

Ryoma looked down at him curiously. "You shouldn't play with your shoe laces in the middle of the floor, senpai." He smirked and made a prompt exit, not bothering to stay to listen to Kaidoh's annoyed explanation. Of course Ryoma knew that Kaidoh wasn't playing with anything, but where was the fun in letting him know that?

The wind tore through the great hall, yet the candles remained lit. The girl's eyes flew open, and were drawn to the monumental wall in front of her upon which an archway had been drawn in clean white chalk. As she continued to chant, a pale yellow light began to creep up along its lines.

Ryoma almost headed straight for the bike racks to meet Momo, but then remembered that Tezuka had asked to see him after practice. And Tezuka was probably in the club meeting room in the main school building, doing some of that organizational stuff that he so often did. Ryoma walked slowly through the empty hallways, though the quiet was soon shattered by a familiar shout that never failed to grate on his nerves.

"Aaahhh!" His annoying classmate, Horio, careened around the corner and came running down the hall full tilt, and Ryoma stepped to the side just in time to avoid getting run over. Two other short, black haired blurs streaked by after him, yelling some sort of warning at him.

"Hmph." Ryoma didn't stop for more than a second, disregarding the hastily given advice. As usual, his curiosity won out over his self-preservation instincts, and he continued in the direction from which his terrified yearmates had come. Turning the corner, the mystery was quickly solved as he quite literally ran into Inui, who was carrying a pitcher of some sort.

"I'm sorry, Echizen, I didn't see you there," Inui said distractedly, a thoughtful look on his face. "We were just getting ready to test my new Super Taste Juice Version Blue."

Fuji appeared from behind Inui and offered his hand to Ryoma, who had been knocked to the floor. Not wanting to offend his eccentric senpai, Ryoma accepted it, and Fuji's eyes shot open and he froze for a brief instant before pulling Ryoma to his feet and resuming his usual expression.

"What a shame, I was looking forward to trying that one," Fuji said regretfully, eyeing the blueish liquid that had spilled onto the floor during the collision.

"Not to worry. I have another batch almost ready," Inui informed him, glasses gleaming in the afternoon light. "Would you like to try some too, Echizen?"

Ryoma unconsciously took a step away, and shook his head. "I've got to go talk to buchou," he excused himself hastily, and quickly continued on his way. As he caught something about viscosity and beetle pigments from the pair's conversation, Ryoma thanked the powers that be that the concoction had been spilled, and walked even faster.

Tezuka gave him a brief look as he peered into the club room. He then waved Ryoma into a chair at the table where they sat, presumably to wait until he and Oishi were finished talking with Fudomine's captain, Tachibana Kippei.

The two team captains spent a few minutes in quiet discussion, consulting often with Oishi, and Ryoma propped his head up with his hand as he stared out the window, utterly bored. Normally he found tennis players from other teams to be interesting, especially strong ones like Tachibana. Though the discussion of schedules was anything but.

Finally, they finished, and the three of them stood. "We look forward to practicing with you again at Fudomine," Tachibana said politely, shaking hands with both Tezuka and Oishi. "And I know Shinji especially is looking forward to playing with you, Echizen-kun." Tachibana said, offering Ryoma his hand as well. Ryoma took it, and was surprised by the laxness of the other buchou's grip.

"Mada mada dane," he said, lips curling slightly upwards. "I'd rather play you."

Tachibana withdrew his hand abruptly and looked down at it for a moment, but then gave Ryoma a knowing smile. "I think you have enough to keep you busy here." With a small wave, Tachibana left.

"Echizen."

Ryoma looked inquisitively at Tezuka. "What was it you wanted, buchou?"

Tezuka walked over to one of the desks and pulled something small out of its drawer. "I believe this is yours." He then pressed it into Ryoma's hand, but paused for a moment before withdrawing his own larger one. "And I have a few books on doubles you should look at," he added, looking distracted.

Ryoma opened his hand, and reddened slightly when he found a small purple ball with a bell inside it. Pocketing the toy, he made a mental note to keep his tennis bag far away from Karupin's favorite spots. He followed Tezuka over to the bookshelf, and allowed himself to be loaded down with several rather dry looking volumes on doubles techniques.

With a brief nod of thanks – though he didn't know if he should be thankful for such a load – Ryoma turned to leave, but halted as he felt a hand settle on his shoulder. Looking up at its owner, Ryoma wondered what Oishi could possibly be frowning about. The kind smile quickly returned to Oishi's face, though, as he handed Ryoma yet another book. This book, at least, looked interesting.

-------

The pale yellow light moving up from both sides of the archway met at the top, and burned gold all around. The nebulous outline of a figure began to form inside the archway, and the girl knew it was time to complete her duty. Her lips stilled, and she stood and stepped carefully, reverently, outside of the symbols and towards the archway. Grasping her athame(1) firmly in her hands, she called out the last necessary words.

"_Per auctorita fidelis voco orior en terra. Eximo!"_

And then, without even an instant's hesitation, she plunged the precious blade into her torso and twisted it, thus completing the final act of the ceremony. Blood splattered to the floor, and was drawn away from her.

She felt herself fall, and the last thing she ever saw was the archway that she had drawn, pulsing a brilliant crimson.

As he left to go meet Momo, Ryoma had the strangest sensation of something being _off_ and wondered, not for the first time that afternoon, what it was that he was missing. Shrugging the feeling off, he walked over to the bike racks, and found his senpai leaning against his bike and staring off into space.

-------

"Hey," Ryoma said, waving his hand in front of Momo's unusually pensive looking face. Momo started, and blinked as he saw Ryoma.

"Oh, hi, Echizen," he said distractedly. "Ready to go?"

Ryoma was somewhat surprised that Momo hadn't complained that he'd been kept waiting, but simply nodded and climbed onto Momo's bike behind him. They rode of in silence, which he found rather uncomfortable for some reason..

"What's with you?" Ryoma asked.

"Huh?" Momo replied with his usual eloquence.

"You're not being so loud," Ryoma said bluntly. "You're thinking about something."

Momo looked thoughtful, but in a way that seemed rather wrong to Ryoma on some level. "I guess so," he replied slowly. "But I don't know what. Its just, a weird feeling, you know?"

"No."

"Ah, I forgot, you're so cold, Echizen!" Momo exclaimed, a smile making its way back onto his face. "But not that cold, if you were worried about me," he teased.

"Yeah, I thought all that thinking might be dangerous for you. But I must have worried for nothing," Ryoma said nonchalantly.

"Brat!"

He could tell that Momo wasn't really mad. "Do you want some burgers?" Ryoma asked. "If we hurry we can meet Kawamura and Eiji-senpai."

-------

"Not bad at all, for a novice. She completed the ceremony quite nicely." The woman, tall and tanned, absently flipped back her vivid golden hair as she observed the carefully drawn symbols on the stone floor and the gloriously red archway. "Dare I ask what you did with the body?"

"Slapped a reverse summoning charm on it and sent it back where it came from," the man said casually. He bent down to pick up the athame, on which the dried blood seemed to blend in with the color of his hair.

"You're such a sadist, Orias," the woman said, sounding amused. "That girl's parents are probably going to have heart attacks or something. Just please tell me you didn't chop it up or . . . _do_ something to it first," she said distastefully.

"Of course not," he replied, as if offended by the idea that he would do such a thing. "I may be a lot of things, but a necrophiliac isn't one of them. And by the way," he added, sounding a touch miffed, "I'm going by Nanjou Isao now."

"That name again already?" She sighed. "How the years fly by."

"But never fast enough, Mara. We've been waiting too long for this already," he said quietly, a fierce gleam in his coal-black eyes.

She patted him on the arm consolingly. "We've waited millennia, and I'm sure you can wait just a little bit longer. This was merely the first step, and I'm sure that He will reward our patience."

"Undoubtedly," Orias agreed. "And I know what I want . . ."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself," came a melodious voice from behind. A slender figure emerged from the shadowed doorway, and regarded the pair serenely. "That little tenshi (2), sweet thing, might not want to play with a demon like you. Pretty things usually don't. And this one isn't like the first one, I don't think. She might not even know what we are. Then what will you do?" He tilted his head to one side, long white hair swishing against his hips.

"You misunderstand, Adriel." Orias smiled darkly. "That's part of the fun."

-------

(1) Athame: a double sided dagger, often used in summoning and other magical ceremonies/rituals.

(2) Tenshi: the Japanese word for Angel. I have chosen to use the Japanese word instead of the English one, as I feel that my use of it is closer to the way it is used in Japanese sources than to the traditional Christian meaning. Japan is not a Christian nation, and Christian imagery and religious iconography (including angels) that are often found in Japanese culture do not necessarily have the same meaning behind them that they would in a more Christian culture.

Chapter 1 Notes:

This was primarily a set-up chapter, as you may have guessed, and everything will be revealed in due time.

As you can see, I have introduced several OC's in this chapter. I generally try to avoid writing OC's, but in this case I didn't have much choice as this story needed some antagonists. And as unpleasant as some of the guys in PoT can be . . . they're just not _bad _enough. Rest assured, though, that these OC's are plot devices and will NOT get a lot of "screen time", so to speak. The focus will be almost exclusively on our tennis boys in future chapters. ;)

Please let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"I can't believe you want to go play more tennis," Momo complained as he and Ryoma headed to the city tennis courts, where they planned to meet with An to play a few games. But after that afternoon's unusually grueling tennis practice, Momo obviously wasn't looking forward to more exercise. And come to think of it, Ryoma wouldn't have minded doing something else either.

"What else is there to do?" Ryoma shrugged, glancing sideways at Momo.

Momo gave him a look of mock horror. "What do you mean what else is there to do? You really should try more things, Echizen." Momo shook his head in disbelief. "How about we go to a movie?"

"Nothing good playing."

"How about the arcade?"

"Too far away."

"We'll get some burgers, then!"

"Not that hungry."

"Ah, I can't think of anything else! You're one difficult kid, Echizen." Momo sighed, apparently having resigned himself to more tennis.

"Why don't we ask An?" Ryoma suggested quietly after a moment.

Momo looked surprised at this, and brightened considerably. "Good idea! Girls are better at thinking up stuff like that anyway," he said wisely.

And luckily for the tired second year, An did indeed have an idea.

"Let's go for ice cream!" she suggested, and enthusiastically dragged the two boys to the nearest ice cream parlor, where she insisted they try waffle cones with the newest novelty flavors. Momo had been rather hesitant to go, protesting that ice cream parlors were for girls or for people on dates, and upon entering the ice cream parlor it did look as though most of the people there were female. But Ryoma didn't really care, and helped An haul Momo in anyway – ice cream was ice cream, after all. Even if it was pistachio-green tea swirl.

By a series of uncanny coincidences, Momo and Ryoma had become rather good friends with An. Momo had said it was strange for them to be so close to their rival team captain's younger sister, but Ryoma didn't see why it mattered since they hadn't even known who she was at first. And by the time they had actually exchanged full names, they had already gotten to know each other well enough to overlook . . . certain small details.

The three walked aimlessly through a nearby park and Ryoma noted, with some amusement, the huge difference in how Momo and An ate their ice cream. While An bit at hers daintily, Momo nearly shoved the whole bottom of his cone in his mouth, and even managed to get some on the side of his mouth as he finished it off.

"What?" Momo asked as he saw Ryoma looking at him.

"Nothing." Ryoma said, hiding a smirk as he gave he ran his tongue carefully over his own cone.

"Momo-chan, you've got ice cream on your face," An informed him with a barely suppressed grin as she handed him a napkin, which was gratefully accepted.

"Echizen! It's not nice to let your senpai walk around with ice cream on their face," Momo told him, only to be answered with a blank look. "Ah, you're so clueless sometimes." Momo slung an arm around his shoulder, oblivious to Ryoma's glare.

"Ah, you guys are so cute!" An teased. Before Ryoma could think of a reply, though, he felt a chill run up his spine. Eyes widening, he whirled around . . . but there was nothing there.

"Echizen?" Momo asked curiously, and An shot him a puzzled look.

"Nothing," Ryoma said uneasily. "Let's go."

They continued through the park in strained silence, and Ryoma was unable to rid himself of the feeling that there was something nearby that should not be. The feeling mounted, until Ryoma couldn't stand it for another moment. Turning around abruptly, he caught sight of a small grey cat perched in a nearby tree. But something inside of him seemed to scream that it wasn't just a cat. As if it knew it had been found out, the cat creature made the impossible leap from the tree branch towards the three of them, eyes gleaming crimson, and before Ryoma knew what he was doing his instincts had taken over and he couldn't stop what he felt was happening again, like it had _before_ . . .

_Ryoma blinked the sleep out of his eyes and stretched languidly, waking up from an impromptu nap. Though it wasn't cold, he shivered, unsure of what had woken him up. _

_It was afternoon on Christmas Eve, which was also his twelfth birthday. His parents had gone to his mother's company retreat, leaving him home alone for a few days with his cousin Nanako, who was probably out shopping or on a date. But Ryoma didn't mind being alone; on the contrary, he was glad to have some quiet time away from his weird parents._

_Hopping off of the sofa, Ryoma went up to his room to change, intending to head over to the tennis courts to see if there was anyone there worth playing. As his bedroom door swished shut behind him, he felt a slight tickle on the backs of his bare arms, but disregarded it and started to pull off his shirt. As his hands brushed against his chest, he froze . . . and looked down. And saw a portion of anatomy that most definitely should not have been there. Eyes widening, but not quite in panic, Ryoma rushed into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. For a moment, all he could do was stare at the _she_ that looked back at him, not comprehending that the waist length emerald tresses and the small, pert breasts could possibly belong to him. _

_He was abruptly jolted out of his shocked state by the sound of the front door opening, and Ryoma's first instinct was to _hide_. Somehow, against everything Ryoma knew of reason in this world, he had turned into a girl, and while he slept nonetheless. It had to be a nightmare. Ryoma bolted out of the bathroom and nearly flew down the hall into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. Nanako must not have heard him, as she didn't come up to greet him. So Ryoma just sat there quietly on his bed, knees drawn up to his newly formed chest. He couldn't bring himself to think rationally about his extremely irrational predicament, though on some level he realized that he couldn't just sit here forever. _

_He wasn't sure for how long he sat there before a soft knock sounded, and Ryoma's eyes fixed on his door. "Ryoma-san?" Nanako called, "Please come down for dinner now."_

"_I'm not hungry. I already --" he began, trailing off abruptly as he realized his mistake. His voice was all wrong. Trying to speak in a lower tone, he continued, falteringly, "I already ate."_

_Silence on the other end of the door, followed by a soft sigh. "I've been home since this afternoon and haven't seen you in the kitchen. Are you not feeling well? You sound a little off."_

"_I'm fine," he said as quietly as he could, and Ryoma held his breath in the pause that stretched before Nanako's reply._

"_All right," Nanako said, a hint of worry in her voice. "Let me know if you need anything." _

_And then she left, and Ryoma let out a sigh of relief. He was saved from discovery, at least for the moment. And he couldn't think ahead any further than that. Flopping bonelessly down on the bed, Ryoma closed his eyes and willed himself to think, or do _something; _but nothing came to him._

_Without warning, his door swung open to reveal Nanako backing in with a tray, and Ryoma bolted upright._

"_I brought you something to eat, and it was so quiet in here that I thought you were asleep and so I . ." Nanako trailed off as she turned and saw Ryoma sitting on the bed. "Oh my," she breathed, eyes widening._

"_Nanako-san . . ." Ryoma had nothing he could tell her. But if he was lucky, maybe she'd think that he was one of his friends, rather than himself. He'd never believed in luck though._

"_Ryoma-san . . . your hair," she said quietly. "And . . ." Ryoma swung his legs over the side of the bed and simply looked at Nanako, causing her to start. The tray dropped out of her unresponsive fingers, landing with a muted thud. " . . . all of you. You're--"_

"_A girl. I know," Ryoma said dully, looking down to avoid her gaze. _

"_How . . . ?" Nanako seemed to be taking this rather calmly, though it was more likely that she was just as shocked as he was._

"_I don't know," he mumbled. "I just woke up like this."_

_Ryoma heard Nanako take a few deep breaths, and then felt a weight settle beside him on the bed. He didn't move. After a moment Ryoma felt himself being pulled against his cousin's warm body by slim, strong arms, and he stiffened self-consciously at the contact. A hand smoothed down his hair, his terrible unnatural hair, and Ryoma bit his lip._

"_It's beautiful, you know," Nanako said softly. "Your hair." She paused. "You should never be ashamed of yourself, Ryoma. No matter what you look like."_

_Just then Ryoma couldn't hold it back anymore, and if asked later, would probably blame the rare show of emotion on his female body. But whatever their reason, tears began to stream silently down his cheeks, and Nanako simply held him while he cried. As his tears finally slowed, he took a few shaky breaths to calm himself, and looked up at Nanako resolutely._

"_Promise you won't tell anyone," he asked, begged, demanded of her, and looked her squarely in the eye while doing his best to still his trembling lower lip. _

_Nanako met his gaze, and smiled sadly. "I promise I won't tell anyone, and I'll do my best to help if I can.." Ryoma realized that it was a pointless promise, and he was sure that Nanako did too. But he was glad to have it anyway. _

_With murmured reassurances, his cousin finally left him alone, and Ryoma figured that he may as well go to sleep. Maybe, just maybe, he would wake up a boy again, since he had changed before while he was sleeping. But the next morning, the breasts and hair were still there, and Ryoma was still undeniably female. His distress was not helped by the fact that his supposedly beautiful hair was now a horrible mess from having been slept on, and he took a pair of scissors from the kitchen and vented his frustration by chopping it it all off up to his chin._

_Not a half hour later, the cursed hair was back. _

_Ryoma tried very hard not to cry again, and succeeded only marginally. Suppressing a rising sense of panic, Ryoma holed himself up in his bedroom, and attempted to distract himself with homework and tennis magazines, a ploy which failed miserably. But that afternoon as he wished, for the tenth time that hour, to be a boy again, something happened that equaled yesterday afternoon's happenings in its strangeness. A tingling sensation swept through his body, causing Ryoma to gasp and shut his eyes. When he opened them, the first thing he noticed was his hair – or lack thereof. _

_He was a boy again. Whatever had happened was over. _

_After he had thoroughly grounded himself in reality, Ryoma headed into the kitchen to join Nanako for dinner. Surprise registered clearly on her face, though neither one of them ever spoke of the surreal events of that day again._

A strange tingling sensation coursed through Ryoma's body as he called out for the creature to leave, and it hissed and sparked as it tried to come closer to him. Then without warning the creature simply vanished, leaving Ryoma feeling distinctly unsettled. He turned to look at Momo and An, who, to his consternation, were simply standing there and gaping at him.

Momo's mouth moved, but no sound came out. An had no such problems, though.

"Aaaiiya!" she cried, hands flying to her open mouth in surprise. "Ryoma-kun . . ."

Looking down at himself, Ryoma felt a sinking sensation as he confirmed that he had, indeed, turned into a girl again. Somehow, it seemed to have been triggered by his reaction to that cat . . . thing . . . but it still didn't make sense. What had just happened?

"What the hell was _that_?" Momo exploded, eyes wide and wild. "Echizen?" he said in a more quiet voice, looking at Ryoma worriedly.

"I don't know," Ryoma said in a quiet, low voice, crossing his arms protectively across his chest and trying to ignore that it was no longer flat. "It was nothing. I've got to go." Though he wasn't sure where he could go, like this. But hopefully, Momo and An had been so distracted by the strange display that they wouldn't immediately notice that he had changed.

Momo looked at him disbelievingly. "You can't just leave after that! And that wasn't nothing," he said hotly. "It sure was weird, and . . . hey, what happened to your hair?"

An stepped directly in front of him then, and gently grabbed Ryoma's chin and tilted it up to face her. She gave him a scrutinizing look and then tugged off his cap, revealing a fall of long hair. "Aaah!" she made a small surprised sound, and then gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, Ryoma-kun, but its the best way . . . ."

"Eh?"

An's hands were lightening quick, and before he could stop her An had planted them on Ryoma's undeniably female chest. She squeezed lightly, and then let out a small cry and quickly withdrew.

"An-san!" Ryoma protested, upset that she'd found out.

"But, but, you're . . . you . . ." An fell silent and just blinked at him in disbelief for a long moment, as if digesting the information. "You're so cuuute!" She finally grinned and glomped him, much to Ryoma's chagrin.

Momo was still standing there and looking utterly bewildered, and Ryoma would have been happy to leave him that way had An not said something. "Ryoma turned into a girl!" An told him, putting her hands on Ryoma's shoulders as if to demonstrate. "See?"

Momo's eyes widened almost comically, and Ryoma would have thought the sight funny if his situation hadn't been so dire. He had no idea what to do next, and Momo's gaping was not helping. Momo came closer and peered closely at Ryoma's face, then at his hair, and then down at his chest. An scowled, and for some reason chose that moment to whack her fellow second-year over the head.

"Okay, I get the idea!" Momo rubbed his head and sighed, then looked carefully back at Ryoma. "Man, that's weird. At least you only look like a girl, I guess. Though there's something else . . . " he trailed off as he stared at Ryoma intently, not seeming to know how to finish his thought.

"Hmph."

"You don't seem so surprised about this," An remarked, giving Ryoma a curious look.

"It happened once before, on my last birthday," he shrugged. "So I should be able to change back again in a day or so." At least, he was pretty sure that was how it worked. "But, the other stuff," he gestured helplessly with his hands. "I don't know."

They stood in uncertain silence for a moment, before Momo broke the mood. "So, do your parents call you Ryoma-_chan_, when you're like this?" he asked only half-teasingly.

"No," Ryoma said shortly. "They don't know," he admitted.

"It's a secret, then?" An asked.

"I guess. I really didn't want them to find out." He didn't even want to think about what his high-strung mother and his pervert of a father would think.

"Your secret's safe with us!" Momo proclaimed. "You can stay at my house tonight, so your parents will never know."

"Uh-uh!" An protested, "_Ryo-chan_'s a girl now, and she can't stay over at a boy's house! You can come home with me," she told Ryoma. "My parents won't mind."

Ryoma's cheeks burned in both anger and embarrassment at the ridiculous nickname An had given him. "I don't mind staying with you, Momo-senpai. But your parents won't let you have a girl overnight, will they," he pointed out, and Momo's face fell.

"I forgot about that." Momo sighed. "Besides, my siblings are so annoying, you'd probably kill them or something," he said jokingly.

"Can we go now then?" Ryoma asked irritably, suddenly feeling very exposed even though the park was nearly deserted where they were. "I don't want anyone to recognize me like this."

"I can take your bag if you want then," Momo offered, and Ryoma handed the familiar item to him gratefully after taking out a few choice necessities. "Now if you're sure you two will be okay . . ." Momo said uncertainly, and An made shooing motions with her hands.

"We'll see you later, Momo-chan! I've got to get Ryo-chan here properly disguised," she said matter-of factly, giving Momo a wink.

"Hoo boy, you're in for it now, Echizen!" Momo snickered, and clapped Echizen on the shoulder before starting to walk away. "See you around! And don't forget to call later!"

As annoying as Momo would undoubtedly be about this, Ryoma suddenly found himself wishing that he wouldn't have left him alone with An.

"Come on, Ryo-chan, I have just the thing . . ."

-------

Chapter 2 Notes:

For those of you wondering where Tezuka and Fuji are, they will start appearing in Chapter 4 and will have increasingly prominent roles from then on. :)

Ryoma's family, as you may have guessed, will be characterized somewhat differently, most notably his mother. His father will be more or less the same, but his mother will not be. This is due to the "ripple effect" from the change I made to canon.

As for Ryoma's behavior in the flashback scene, I do not consider it OOC, despite the show of emotion. Stoic and confident or not, Ryoma is still a just a kid. And suddenly having your reality turned upside down by an impossible gender change would be enough to make anyone cry, IMHO.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Ryoma looked at Ann in utter horror, and took a step back in the small public restroom that she'd shoved him into to change in at the park.

"No," he said flatly, eyeing the clothes in her hands warily.

"Well, you can't go around in public in that! You don't want anyone to notice you, but a girl in a boy's school uniform just looks weird," she told him. "And if you try to pass for a boy, then you'll look almost like you normally do. And then what if someone you know sees you, hmm?" She said pointedly, hands on her hips.

Ryoma let out a small, defeated sigh. He really, _really_ didn't want to wear that horrifyingly cute thing that An called a school uniform. But he wanted to be discovered even less, and he had to admit that An was probably right. Dressing as a girl _was_ the best way to avoid anyone recognizing him, however terrible a prospect it was.

"Fine," he said resignedly, taking the clothes from An. He took off his uniform pants and shirt and pulled the loathed garments on hastily, reluctantly allowing An to fasten the navy-trimmed sailor top for him.

An gave him a critical look. "It's kind of big, but it'll do," she said approvingly, and then began to root around for something in her bag. "Now pull up your socks." As Ryoma bent down and did as she said, An cried out, "Ah, here it is." A red neck kerchief dangled between her fingers, and she thrust it into his hands. "Can't forget this!" Ryoma looked at it dubiously, then back at An.

"Go ahead, put it on!" she prompted. "No self-respecting girl goes around in her uniform without the tie," she explained. "You'll just make yourself stand out if you don't wear it."

Ryoma scowled. "Fine." Though he had his doubts as to his friend's motives, he allowed her to put the thing around his neck anyway, as his annoying hair got in the way too much for him to manage it himself the first time.

"Since you're dressing me up as a girl, don't I get to put my hair in a ponytail or something?"

An looked thoughtful for a moment. "No," she said decisively "Your long hair makes you look more feminine, and helps hide your face from the side. But don't worry, you look super cute! I'm sure no one would ever recognize you." An flashed him a grin. "Its a good thing I changed into my tennis clothes after school today so you could wear my uniform."

Ryoma did not agree; even An's tennis dress would have been better than her sailor fuku. "I hate being a girl," he grumbled, and allowed An to pull him outside. She latched onto his arm, then, and led him out of the park, looking far too cheerful for his taste. As they entered the more crowded underground train station, Ryoma became increasingly aware of how embarrassed he was, and it took all of his willpower to resist the urge to hide behind his slightly taller female friend.

"Oh! I'd better call home, just in case someone's there." An pulled out her phone while they waited and began to dial, which reminded Ryoma that he should call his house as well. Taking out his own phone, he dialed and listened to the rings, hoping that Nanako would be the one to pick up. Luck was with him, and his cousin was the one to answer. And though he wasn't sure what she thought about the arrangement, she did agree to cover for him.

Ryoma stared blankly at his phone for a moment after she hung up, and wondered if Nanako really would keep the promise she had first made to him. And if it would even be necessary, anyway.

As if sensing his down turning mood, An gave him an encouraging smile. "Don't look so down, Ryo-chan! Let's go get some burgers, my treat."

Ryoma shook his head. "I'm not hungry."

"Well, its close to dinner anyway. We usually get take-out, I can call for some when we get home . . ." An trailed off abruptly, and unceremoniously yanked Ryoma back behind one of the support pillars. He was about to protest, until An hissed, "Tezuka-san is here!" Ryoma looked up in surprise, and unintentionally caught sight of said senpai before ducking his head down. An grabbed his hand, leading him to the other side of the platform, but Ryoma knew that Tezuka had seen him. Risking a glance back, their eyes met for a moment, and for the first time in his life Ryoma was grateful to be swallowed up in a crowd.

-------

Air whirled and sparked on the ledge of his balcony, and Orias watched with anticipation as a small feline form materialized on it. Reaching his hand out, he stroked the small ball of energy, all the while listening to its report.

"Poor kit, did the little tenshi send you away?" He smiled amusedly. "I suppose you won't do anymore for that job, though I'm very glad that you found her for me." He had known that her presence would manifest itself soon after the initial ceremony, though she had been unbelievably difficult to find. That she had another form to mask her true self and aura was unfortunate, as she could very well be impossible to track down while in it. But his little watcher had seen her other form, so while she couldn't be tracked down by magical means while in it she would be far from unfindable. "Let the game begin," he murmured, and then directed further inquiries to the creature.

The news it brought him was good. The first point had gone down marvelously; but then, he'd expected no less from Mara. Only four more to go before the center . . .

-------

"Tadaima!" An called as she stepped through the front door. Toeing off her shoes, she placed them in the cubby and stepped into a pair of slippers, and indicated that her guest do the same.

Though Ryoma had visited her house once before when 'it' had first happened more than a week ago, the younger tennis player still looked somewhat uncomfortable here. Though An suspected that the uneasiness was probably due more to the fact that he was in girl form again than anything else. She wasn't quite sure how, but whatever had caused Ryoma to change had happened again, and though it was not permanent it seemed to take a full day before he could change back. This time, though, it must have been something more than a deranged looking cat that had caused him to change, as Ryoma had come to her sporting several livid bruises on his pale face and arms. But An didn't mind having Ryoma as a house guest at all. Despite his quiet, somewhat prickly temperament, she found his company a refreshing change from her usual girlfriends.

Smiling, An motioned him – her? -- into the rest of the house, which at first glance appeared empty. Ryoma sat down stiffly beside her on the sofa, and then, to An's surprise, asked if she wanted to do their English homework together. English had never been her best subject, and she accepted gratefully.

"I'll just go get us some snacks first," she told him, rising.

An padded into the kitchen, and her jaw dropped at the sight that greeted her.

"Oh, hello, An-chan," her mother said, smiling brightly as she looked up from the vegetables she was chopping. "I didn't hear you come in! How was your day?"

"Okasan! You're home," Ann said disbelievingly. "And is that dinner you're making?" Being a successful businesswoman, her mother worked long hours and was rarely home to spend time with her family, let alone to cook for them.

"We closed that big account ahead of schedule today, and since you and your brother will both be home early I thought we could all have dinner together. And didn't you say you were bringing a friend home?" she asked, dumping the pile of vegetables into a simmering pot. Despite her apparent absence from her children's lives, Tachibana Junko insisted that they call and leave her phone messages at work to let her know what they were doing. Since their father was away so often on business, An appreciated the sentiment.

"Uh-huh! She's in the living room." An replied. The kitchen door swung open then, and bright golden eyes peeked in and looked inquiringly between An and her mother. "Ah, I didn't forget about you, Ryo-chan!" An assured him, figuring that Ryoma had probably wondered where she'd disappeared to. "Okasan, this is my friend Ryo-chan; Ryo-chan, this is my mother." An introduced them, feeling both pleased and apprehensive about the meeting. But, knowing her mother's rampant but under-utilized maternal instincts, her accepting Ryoma into their house would not be an issue. And if this little problem of Ryoma's continued, that would definitely be a good thing.

"Oh, you're so cute!" her mother exclaimed, and An grinned. "It's nice to meet you, Ryo-chan," she said kindly. "Please make yourself at home."

"Thank you, Tachibana-san," Ryoma replied politely, averting his gaze. An still couldn't get over how strange it was seeing him as a girl like this. Somehow, the same traits that seemed standoffish and rude in him as a boy only made him seem withdrawn and shy when he was a girl, especially since he was so embarrassed to be one.

"Please, call me Junko!" She beamed. "There are too many Tachibanas in this house for formalities."

Ryoma nodded, and then left the kitchen as An suggested that he put his bag upstairs. An frowned then, as she was reminded that her brother would be home soon. An had managed to not have the two meet the last time Ryoma had visited, but it looked like it would be inevitable this time. "Okasan, is aniki going to have dinner with us too?"

"Yes, Kippei-kun will be coming home early today as well," Junko confirmed. "But don't worry, I'm sure he'll get along just fine with your friend, she's such a sweet girl! Poor thing looks like she could use a steady environment, and goodness knows how Kippei can be so protective of anything that he thinks needs it," she remarked.

Poor thing? What did her mother mean by that? Ryoma was rather small as a girl, but that couldn't be it . . . suddenly, comprehension dawned on An as she realized how Ryoma must look to someone who didn't know him otherwise. They would see only a thin, delicate-looking girl with bruises, wearing borrowed clothing and seeming painfully shy. An nearly sighed aloud, but figured, at least, that there was no way her family would ever refuse to let Ryoma stay if that's what they thought of him.

Excusing herself from the kitchen, An went upstairs to her bedroom and worked on her English with Ryoma, who proved to be quite helpful despite his seeming intolerance for mistakes. Dinner came all too quickly, and An observed anxiously as her brother turned a critical eye on Ryoma. Ryoma, for his part, simply ignored Kippei after their brief introduction, though fortunately his behavior probably came across as shyness rather than rudeness.

Her mother spoke animatedly with her and her brother, also trying to draw Ryoma into the conversation at times with little success. An had to hand it to Ryoma; he certainly could be evasive. It was nothing short of a miracle that he had managed to tell An's mother virtually nothing about himself besides a first name. And judging by the way Kippei was looking at Ryoma, he had taken note of this too, and looked more than slightly curious.

"An, why don't you come help me in the kitchen?" her mother said with a smile as she stood up and began to clear the table. Whenever Junko cooked, An always helped her clean up, and she cherished the time alone with her mother. She was more than a little nervous about leaving her brother and Ryoma alone, though.

"I can help," Ryoma spoke up, perhaps feeling the same.

"Nonsense!" Junko brushed off his offer. "An and I can take care of it. Come on, sweetie," With a helpless shrug, An followed her mother to the kitchen, reluctantly leaving the two boys alone.

-------

_Tick – tock – tick –_

The room was pleasantly silent, save for the ticking of the Tachibana family's grandfather clock. Though Ryoma had the unpleasant notion that it might not stay that way for long, if the looks Tachibana was giving him were any indication. Excusing himself, he stood up and started for the stairs, sure that An wouldn't mind if he made a quick escape without her.

"Did you know," Tachibana began, and Ryoma's footsteps slowed. "That with a little practice, some people can see auras?" Tachibana paused, and Ryoma stopped with his back turned. "I was never one of them. But I can still see yours; you have beautiful wings."

Ryoma stiffened and remained silent, not liking where this line of thought was going at all.

"What are you?" Tachibana asked boldly, and though his tone was challenging Ryoma could hear undercurrents of uncertainty in his voice. Ryoma's eyes narrowed as he turned to face the other boy, but his face quickly resumed its usual impassive expression as he decided that Tachibana was no threat to him. Even if he had somehow noticed something unusual about 'Ryo-chan', he certainly didn't know what was going on -- even Ryoma didn't know that. But still, he figured that Tachibana would be easier to deal with if he knew that his little sister's new friend wasn't a threat.

"Nothing you need to be worried about," Ryoma answered smartly. "After all, I'm just another person, like you."

Tachibana's expression relaxed slightly at this, though the concern had not left his face. "I see," he replied thoughtfully. Satisfied, Ryoma started back towards An's room, but faltered as Tachibana's strong voice followed him up the stairs.

"You draw attention to yourself, just by existing as you do," came his quiet warning. "You should be careful."

Ryoma quickened his pace, unnerved by Tachibana's words. And if someone as normal seeming as a junior high tennis player noticed something strange about him . . . who else was out there that would too?

-------

Chapter 3 Notes:

This chapter may have seemed a little long-winded, but I really felt the need to explain why Ryoma behaves the way he does as a girl (and how he could possibly be convinced to put on a skirt!), and how he is perceived based on his behavior vs. how he actually is. I'm really trying to keep him in character! And a word on pronouns: I will be using male pronouns to refer to Ryoma in girl form in scenes that are from Ryoma's POV, or from the POV of someone who knows who Ryoma really is.

Fudomine girls' uniform consists of a navy blue pleated skirt, a white sailor top with navy blue trim, and a red neck kerchief, as seen in episode 53 of the anime. I have no idea what the Tachibana family dynamic is like, so I completely made that part up to suit my purposes.

**A/N: **Wow, there seems to be virtually no interest for this story here on ff dot net. I've never written anything that's gotten so few reviews! This story has already been completed, but I won't continue to post it here if no one is even reading it. I have LJ, and I can always host it myself on my own webspace. So if you are reading this story and would like me to continue posting it here, please consider leaving a review to let me know you're out there!


	5. Chapter 4

_Many thanks to the few of you that reviewed the last chapter. Even if it was only to say that you were reading, I really appreciate it. :) So, for you guys, here is the next chapter._

**Chapter 4**

Ryoma sneezed as yet another cloud of dust rose from the piles of stuff in their small attic. But somewhere among these piles of junk, Ryoma hoped to find something useful to his current problem. Changing into a girl was more than a little inconvenient, not to mention terribly embarrassing But the strangely unexplainable things that triggered the change added yet another layer to the problem; one that Ryoma felt vaguely threatened by. In the two times he that had changed after the first time on his birthday, there had been something strange and decidedly sinister directly beforehand that seemed to trigger some instinctual response in Ryoma, which also caused him to change into a girl. And try as he might, Ryoma couldn't think of a better word to describe it other than magic.

Though how was his changing into a girl related to magic, or whatever it was? When he had come home from An's house that afternoon after changing back into a boy, he had talked it over with Nanako, though she was hardly a person he'd normally choose to discuss something like this with. Even Tachibana, he'd figured, could have been more help; but he'd had to talk to _someone_.

Though Ryoma had been pleasantly surprised when Nanako had, after going quiet for a long moment, suggested that he look in the attic, and hinted that there would be something helpful there. She had refused to say more, and looked rather flustered that she'd said anything at all, and so Ryoma had just gone up there and started digging. He had no idea what he was looking for, but hoped that he'd know it when he saw it.

Heaving aside a set of curtain rods and ugly drapes, he uncovered a trunk. It was old and worn, with tarnished silver fastenings, but it was the only thing left he hadn't looked in already. After a few minutes of struggling with it he managed to pry the latch open, and began to look through its contents. The first thing he pulled out was a small kimono, made of a silken ivory and pale green material that looked as though it had been freshly laundered. Underneath were a pair of matching geta, various trinkets, cloth, jewelry, and finally, at the very bottom, a large, leather bound book with a star and something feathered drawn on the cover. Ryoma looked at it curiously and pulled it out, and noticed a small bracelet fall off of it. It was a delicate looking thing, made of tiny jade green beads and tied with a simple silver charm, though Ryoma had the idea that it was stronger than it looked. Absently, he let it slip onto his wrist, and turned his attention to the book.

He flipped though the yellowed pages carefully, surprised that the book was in such good condition. The drawings and diagrams inside looked old-fashioned, if not archaic, and the writing style the author had used was a far cry from modern Japanese.

With a start, Ryoma looked down at the writings more carefully, only to realize that they were not in Japanese from _any_ era; and it wasn't in English either.

But those were the only languages that Ryoma spoke . . .

Before he could think about it further, though, Nanako stuck her head up through the trap door. "You'd better come down now, Ryoma-san, uncle just came home," she whispered urgently, and then ducked back down. Ryoma certainly didn't want to have to explain to his dad why he was rummaging around in the attic, especially not if the man knew about the trunk he'd just found. Hastily throwing the drapery back over the truck, Ryoma grabbed the book and hurried out of the attic to his room.

Whatever language it was in, he hoped the book might have some answers, and at this point Ryoma would settle for even the vaguest of explanations. He flipped the book open and scanned its contents, and noticed with interest a section titled simply 'Sleep'. Perhaps dreams would be covered, too -- he wanted to know if they could have something to do with all this. Because surely, a dream of temple being destroyed by magic was not normal . . .

-------

Kaidoh jogged along the trail, huffing slightly as he hit a hill. As he approached a row of trees, a small, furry animal with a bushy tail perched in one of them caught his eye. Though he would never admit it to anyone, Kaidoh was secretly drawn to cute furry animals. But that was not why this particular squirrel . . . thing . . . caught his attention.

Squirrels did not have eyes that glowed. And Kaidoh had never, ever seen a cute animal that made him uneasy like this one did.

He picked up his pace and jogged over to the tree; but the little thing was gone, whatever it had been. And he could have sworn he'd heard a popping sound . . .

-------

Humming lightly to himself, Momo pedaled home on his bicycle after tennis practice that afternoon. He and Echizen had planned to go shopping for some new grips afterwards, but the small freshman hadn't been at school, or even at tennis practice that day. Though it was hard to tell, Tezuka had looked vaguely annoyed and maybe a bit concerned, as everyone figured that Echizen would have to be pretty sick to miss both school _and_ tennis practice, the latter of which he'd showed up for once when he'd had a bad cold.

Call it a gut feeling, but Momo seriously doubted that Echizen was sick. _It_ must have happened again, and Momo knew that even tennis would not be enough to get Ryoma to come to school if he was in girl form. As he pondered this, though, his attention drifted away from his steering, and he was jolted out of his thoughts as he ran over a huge pothole that sent his bicycle flying forward. Momo cringed and braced himself for the inevitable impact with a nearby tree . . . though the impact never came, only a whoosh of warm air.

Inexplicably, he had landed gently on the sidewalk.

Both puzzled and a tiny bit freaked out, Momo tried not to think about it, and continued on his way.

-------

"Hmm." Inui adjusted his glasses as he bent down to inspect the contents of his beaker, which was currently sitting above a Bunsen burner. The burner was on, but the mixture inside of the beaker was not heating up as he had hoped it would.

"It looks like it's coming along nicely," Fuji commented as he looked up from his chemistry homework. "I hope it's as good as your last batch."

"I'm afraid my new formulation is too viscous, as the boiling point seems unusually high. I'll probably have to throw this batch out if it doesn't start bubbling soon." Inui found it rather frustrating to have to discard what had been such a promising recipe, and though he realized what his error must have been he still wished it would just change temperature already and surprise him.

But that couldn't happen, of course, so Inui turned off the burner and took the tongs, grasping the beaker to remove it from the heat. He nearly dropped it in surprise when he felt a brief surge from the tips of his fingers, and his mouth dropped open as he looked down at the contents of the beaker.

It was frozen solid.

Fuji looked over at him sharply, and Inui could only look back. For once, this was something that he had absolutely no data on.

-------

"What brings you here?" Tezuka inquired, racking his brain to think of why Fuji would come and visit him in his classroom during lunch. Fuji just smiled.

"Can't I come visit my buchou sometimes?" he replied lightly. Tezuka just looked at him patiently. "Ah, you got me. Will you come with me? There's something we should talk about." Fuji started for the door, and Tezuka decided that he may as well follow. Chances were that whatever it was Fuji wanted to talk about would be at least interesting, if not important.

His interest level went up a notch as Fuji lead him up to the roof, which was predictably deserted. Fuji wanted their talk to be private, then, and Tezuka wasn't sure if that should worry him or not.

He sat down beside Fuji up against the fence, and was surprised to see the other boy looking at him with bright blue eyes. "Ne, Tezuka," he began quietly, "Have you noticed anything . . . unusual, lately?"

"That depends on what you mean by unusual." Tezuka's brow furrowed slightly. But knowing Fuji, when he said unusual he meant _unusual_. Just as Tezuka was going to reply that he had not, though, he recalled the girl he had seen at the train station that day. The girl that had been surrounded by shimmering wings, that no one else but him had seemed able to see. "Maybe," he added after a moment.

"You're not the only one," Fuji said seriously. "Eiji and Taka-san both mentioned some rather strange things happening near them recently, and I saw the most unusual thing yesterday while Inui was mixing up a new tea."

Tezuka shot him a sharp look. "And you think this has something to do with me also?"

"I think it has something to do with all of us," Fuji countered, presumably referring to the tennis club regulars and their manager. "It's too much of a coincidence."

Tezuka sat silently for a moment, considering Fuji's words. His highly ordered mind did not easily accept what Fuji was implying, but he trusted the tensai's instincts, and not only when it came to tennis. And then there was his own encounter to consider.

"Do you have any suggestions?" He finally spoke. He wasn't normally one to ask for advice, but in this he had no experience. Fuji probably didn't either; but then, Fuji seemed the thrive on all things strange and unpredictable.

But Fuji shook his head. "No . . . I honestly have no idea what we're dealing with, and you know I'm not very good with research." Tezuka suppressed an eye roll at this. "But you know, Inui seemed very interested in what happened yesterday," Fuji hinted.

"Ah." That was hardly surprising, given Inui's love for data. "I'll ask him to look into it." Whatever _it_ was.

"Would you?" Fuji's smile was back. "That's a wonderful idea."

Of course, Tezuka figured, that was probably what Fuji had thought to do in the first place. But Tezuka recognized the request for what it was, and was glad not to be left out of the loop.

He just hoped that Inui's research and data gathering skills would be up for the challenge.

-------

Chapter 4 Notes:

Not much to say for this chapter. But I had an awful time figuring out how to write Tezuka and Fuji, and I apologize if they are out of character. You will, however, be seeing much more of them in future chapters. ;)


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Wow, that was a great sale! I can't wait to try out my new shoes on the courts," Eiji said happily as he and Fuji stepped out of the sporting goods shop. "Thanks for helping me pick them out, Fujiko! It's so hard to decide."

"I don't mind at all," Fuji said with a smile. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, but he had played enough tennis during the week. And he found his classmate's bouncy personality and frequent enthusiastic outbursts to be rather entertaining, so he'd been quite happy to accompany Eiji on his quest for new tennis shoes.

"Are you hungry? We could go get something to eat next," Eiji suggested.

"Sure," Fuji said agreeably. "Some cake would be good now."

"Nya, Fuji, you like sweets too much! But we could . . ." Eiji chattered on about the merits of the various bakeries nearby, and Fuji listened only peripherally. But suddenly, Eiji went quiet, and Fuji turned to see his friend staring wide-eyed and slack jawed at something across the street. The quiet didn't last long, though, and before Fuji had a chance to say anything Eiji burst out, "Iiya! Fuji, did you see it, did you? Its a girl with wings!"

Fuji's eyes slitted open in interest as he scanned the crowd. "No, but I would very much like to. Tell me, what did she look like?"

"I told you, she had wings! Glowing ones, and pretty long hair." Oblivious to Fuji's intense gaze, Eiji gestured urgently and pulled the unresisting Fuji around the corner. "There! Do you see? Oh please tell me you see her and I'm not imagining things," he pleaded.

"I see her." Fuji's eyes locked on the small figure of the girl, who was walking rather quickly down the crowded street. She was nothing short of stunning with her fair skin, golden eyes, and long wavy hair; but that was what not made her noticeable to Fuji. It was the transparent wing-like structure that seemed to shimmer in and out of view around her that he found so captivating. Obviously, they were not real wings, or they would have gotten in her way. And judging by other people's lack of reaction, they were only visible to him and Eiji anyway. "I wonder if that's what an aura looks like," he murmured thoughtfully. "Saa, Eiji, let's go say hello," Fuji suggested calmly.

"Eh?" Eiji said disbelievingly. "We don't even know her! Why would we do that?"

"Why not?"

------

It had been a fine Sunday for Ryoma; that is, until that snake thing had showed up.

At first, Ryoma had thought he was imagining things when the air nearby seemed to whirl together to form some sort of serpent, but when the thing had come at him with an impossibly wide open mouth that idea had gone straight out the window. Whatever it was, the snake-like creature had gone straight for his face, and Ryoma had instinctively put up his arms in defense. Small, needle-like teeth had sunk into his left forearm, and Ryoma shook his arm and shouted furiously at the creature in an attempt to scare it off. To Ryoma's relief and surprise, the creature had writhed as if in pain, and then dissolved back into the air from which it had come. But he had not missed the too-familiar tingling feeling that had coursed through his body, and Ryoma had looked down at himself with dread.

He had turned into a girl again.

Grudgingly, Ryoma had headed to the locker rooms of a nearby public sports club and had changed into his 'girl clothes'. Though he had been adamantly against the idea when An had pushed it on him, he had eventually admitted that it would be a good idea to carry a set of girl's clothing with him as a disguise, just in case. Getting discovered was the last thing he wanted.

He had drawn the line at underwear, though.

Almost happily, An had supplied him with her old school uniform from the year before, and he had wrapped it up tightly in a black plastic bag before stuffing it in the very bottom of his bag that morning. And fortunately, the bag he had taken was not one that he used often, so no one would recognize it as his.

Though he knew on some level that he didn't look it, Ryoma still felt absolutely ridiculous walking around in a girl's school uniform. What he really wanted to do was call An and see if he could meet her, and he blew his breath out in frustration as he remembered that he'd forgotten to bring his cell phone with him. So he set out on a mission to find a pay phone, which was no easy task in a city where everyone seemed to have a cell phone.

In his haste, Ryoma almost didn't notice two pairs of eyes watching him from across the street. He nearly bolted when he noticed Eiji and a very intent looking Fuji heading his way, though managed to suppressed that impulse. Instead he picked up his pace, ducking through gaps in the crowded streets that his larger senpai couldn't maneuver through as easily. It took him a good fifteen minutes, but Ryoma was pretty sure that he had finally managed to lose them.

And, even better, he had found a pay phone in the process. Heading into the booth, he picked up the phone and started to dial.

------

Tachibana Kippei leaned casually against the door frame of one of the classrooms, waiting patiently for his sister to finish scrubbing the paint off of her fingers. Even though it was a Sunday, many of the members of Fudomine Junior High's sports clubs were preparing for the Athletic Festival later that month. It was getting late, though, and they were starting to finish up for the day.

Finally, An finished drying her hands, and she grabbed her bag off the floor before coming over to him. "Thanks for waiting, oniichan." She smiled cutely.

Tachibana nodded and gave her a slight smile in greeting. The two then headed out of the school building, but before they exited the main gate they were stopped by a breathless, paint splattered girl running up to them.

"An-senpai!" the girl called out, and Ann turned to look at her quizzically.

"Hiroko-chan?"

"I'm sorry to bother you! But, Mika-chan fell off the ladder and the banner is ruined and . . ." Hiroko then proceeded to explain why they so desperately needed Ann's help, and his sister, being the nice girl that she was, agreed.

"I'll be there in a minute, Hiroko-chan!" she called after the other girl as she ran back towards the school building. "Ah," An sighed, looking up at him. "They really need my help. I guess I'll see you at home, oniichan." An raised her hand as if to give him a small wave, but it flew to her face as her eyes widened. "Oh no! I'm supposed to meet Ryo-chan at the train station!" she cried.

"Why don't you just call her?" Tachibana suggested calmly, though his interest piqued at the mention of that strange girl.

"She doesn't have her phone today," An said, obviously distressed. "And I need to finish up here, but I can't just leave her waiting at the train station all alone for so long!"

Ever since he had first laid eyes on the golden-eyed girl with the wing-like aura, Tachibana had been more than a little curious about her. But she was very quiet, and though he'd thought at first that she was just shy she was actually quite sassy; in the rare event that she could be coaxed into speaking, anyway. Besides that, An was very protective of her new friend, making it nearly impossible for him to get her alone. But now . . .

"You go ahead with your club duties," Tachibana told her warmly. "I'll meet your friend at the station for you. I know who she is."

At that, An looked at him warily. "Oniichan! You'd better not be up to something," she warned, and he could see the internal struggle as it reflected on her face. Which was interesting, and made him wonder just how much An was not telling him about her friend. "I've seen how you're always looking at Ryo-chan!" she waved her finger at him, though he could see something else behind her usual cheerfulness. "But, all right. Go ahead and meet her for me. She'll be waiting by the north entrance," Ann told him, looking vaguely anxious.

"Should I bring her home with me?"

"Yes." An nodded, and then reluctantly started back to the school building. "And she's really shy, so don't try to make her talk too much!" she threw over her shoulder, as if as an afterthought.

Tachibana waved goodbye and walked the short distance to the train station, questioning what, exactly, he even hoped to accomplish by getting the girl alone. But some inner sense of his – perhaps that of duty, or even curiosity – compelled him to make further contact with Ryo-chan and find out more about her. There was something very unusual about that girl that he just had to find out, and not only for curiosity's sake.

Entering through the station's north gate, he scanned the crowd until he caught sight of a head of emerald green hair. He strode towards the petite girl purposefully, and she looked up at him and blinked in surprise when he stopped beside her. But then, rather than greeting him, she simply crossed her arms and proceeded to ignore him.

Both annoyed and slightly amused, Tachibana tapped her lightly on the arm to get her attention. "Ryo-chan? An was delayed, and she asked me to meet you instead. You're staying the night, right?"

A look of alarm flashed briefly across her face, then she nodded hesitantly and followed him wordlessly to the platform. They waited for the train in strained silence, which did not ease as they boarded it. Any attempts that he made at conversation, though, were immediately squashed, if not by her stubborn silence than by the hordes of people that packed the train as they headed home after the weekend.

Whoever this girl may have been she was obviously not used to riding on crowded trains, if her reaction to the wandering hands of a nearby salaryman was any indication. Being the gentleman that he was, Tachibana had mercy on the flustered looking girl and moved in front of her, sandwiching her between him and the door. Strangely, this only seemed to irritate her further, and by the time they reached their station Tachibana had lost almost all hope of engaging her in any sort of useful conversation. Nevermind that he didn't even know what it was that he wanted to find out.

As he walked her back to his house, he was distracted from his dilemma by a subtle but distinct sense of unease that pushed all other thoughts to the back of his mind. Unconsciously, he picked up his pace and moved a bit closer to the girl, but at the same time she seemed to be slowing down.

"There's . . . something I need to do near here," she said distractedly, a faraway look in her eyes. "I'll be at your house by the time An gets home." Giving no further explanation, she turned and took off at a near run in another direction.

"Wait!" Tachibana called after her, and jogged to catch up with her when she ignored him.

"What do you want?" she asked indifferently, not even pausing.

"An would be very annoyed with me if I lost you," he said with a wry smile. "And I have a feeling that's a possibility, wherever you're going."

Ryo-chan shot him a sharp look, but then seemed to forget about his presence entirely as she slowed to near stop as she entered a nearby a park. She seemed to be focusing intently on something just past the rows of trees that bordered it, and Tachibana tried desperately to see what it was that she saw.

Her eyes went wide for a moment, and then narrowed. "Wait here," she said flatly, and gave no other explanation before she dashed off through the trees. Having given up on trying to get her to listen to him, Tachibana chased after her as he tried to think of what it was that was in the center of this park. Then he remembered, from one of the signs he'd seen before – this wasn't so much a park as it was a historic site that had been preserved as one. The entire place was one giant keyhole shaped tomb of ancient royalty, dating back to the Kofun period (1).

Ryo-chan proved to be incredibly fast; so fast, in fact, that he almost lost her. As he emerged through the final ring of trees in the center of the park, all he could do for a moment was freeze as utter shock coursed through him. Ryo-chan was glowing. But it was not the usual soft white glow of her aura that surrounded her, but an angry pulsing red. And she looked to be in pain, though no sound escaped her lips. Standing at the top of the mound was a scantily clad blonde woman whose hands held spheres of the scarlet light, and it didn't take much deduction on Tachibana's part to figure out that she wasn't friendly.

Just as he was about to try and intervene somehow, though, Ryo-chan staggered to her feet, and as she pushed her hands out in front of her she seemed to be also _pushing_ the redness back towards the woman with what appeared to be great effort. But the woman just smirked.

"It's time you learned what you can and cannot do, little one." Tachibana watched in horror as she waved her hand and sent a rain of fiery looking blasts at Ryo-chan, who let out a faint cry as the smallest of them began to impact. Unable to stand by and watch any longer, Tachibana impulsively stepped in front of the girl, his first and foremost thought being that he had to save her.

"You . . . idiot . . ." Ryo-chan said breathlessly, looking dazed.

"Leave her alone," he yelled at the woman, and braced his arms in front of him as the dangerous little balls of energy sped towards them. But when they got within a half meter or so of him, something strange happened. They simply dissolved, as if they had hit a wall.

The smirk all but disappeared from the woman's face then, only to be replaced with a look of interest. Though somehow, Tachibana doubted that her interest was of a friendly sort.

"What's this? Such a young Guardian you are." She ceased her attacks, and looked directly at him. "And rather inexperienced, by the looks of it. But I really don't want to deal with you now. I didn't come here for that." She sent a final blast of energy directly into the center of the tomb's mound, and the ground beneath him began to rumble. Slowly, but with great finality, the mound began to implode in a cloud of earth and stone.

"Bring the rest of you next time – maybe then you can actually provide me with a proper challenge," she said mockingly, and then flickered out of existence.

Tachibana's mind whirled as he desperately tried to piece together what had just happened.

"Ryo-chan?" He said hesitantly, turning to look at the girl who may be his only source of answers. She hadn't said a word since after he'd run in front of her, and she looked utterly exhausted.

"She's gone?" Ryo-chan asked faintly.

"She's gone," he confirmed, moving over to the girl. "Whatever she was."

"Good." Ryo-chan let out a breath, and then, without warning, collapsed. His fast reflexes allowed him to catch her before she hit the ground, and he swung her up into his arms and held her carefully. She was surprisingly light. Not knowing what else he could do, Tachibana turned and headed home. He needed to think, and he needed to find answers as to what on earth was going on.

But for now, he just wanted to get away from here.

------

(1) Kofun Period: time in Japan's history from the early 3rd - 8th century.

**Author's Note:** Despite the lack of interest, I've decided to give this story another try here on ffnet and post a couple more chapters. Thank you very much to the few of you that reviewed! Chapter 6 will be up in a day or two. :)


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_It is an old building, he can tell. But it isn't used for what it used to be; not anymore. _

_The rooms, filled with desks, are empty; but the hallways are crowded with people. Yelling, screaming, trampling, and finally gone._

_He can feel more than hear a crackling in the air, like static electricity gathering, and papers whip around in a flurry of white. Doors blow open, and windows shatter as the building begins to fall._

_There is another presence nearby, and he chases after the person, who has so much power. _

_But all he can see is a flash of white hair . . . and a smile . . . _

_A small grey cat leaps away from the rubble, but he can't follow something that can disappear . . . _

Ryoma awoke with a sharp intake of breath, and tried to suppress the lingering sense of unease that the dream had left him with. All thoughts of what it may have meant, however, were quickly forgotten as he recalled what had happened last. Fully awake now, he sat up abruptly, only to find himself on his back again as spots swam in his vision. Whatever it was he had tried to do to defend himself against that woman obviously wasn't something that he was good at; he was dead tired. Opening his eyes again, he stayed where he was this time and looked around. He was in An's living room, lying on the sofa.

"Ah, you're finally awake! We were so worried." An met his eyes from where she sat in a nearby chair, and gave him a relived smile. "How do you feel?"

"Fine," Ryoma mumbled, sitting up more carefully this time.

"Aniki told me what a little about happened when I got home! Is there really someone else with powers like yours?" she asked curiously.

"I don't think either of their powers were like mine," Ryoma said thoughtfully, still trying to process everything that had happened. "I can't blast people with energy or put up invisible shields."

"Well, you should try and figure out what you can do and . . . wait, you said 'their' powers. But didn't you say there was only one person who attacked you?" An said slowly.

"There was. Your brother has them too."

"Iiya, no way! Since when?" An burst out, eyes wide.

Ryoma just shrugged; it was news to him too. Before An could barrage him with further questions, though, Tachibana emerged from the kitchen, a mug in one hand, and padded over to the seating area.

"Oniichan! Why didn't you tell me you had special powers?" An demanded, turning to look at her brother.

"I didn't know. But you don't seem too surprised about anything else that's happened today," he said pointedly, and An had the good grace to look chastened. He then turned his gaze on Ryoma. "And are you feeling better?" he asked in a softer tone.

"Mmm." Ryoma nodded sharply, and kept his head down. He was nearly startled into looking up then, as Tachibana handed him a mug of tea. Looking at his arms and hands as he took it, Ryoma noticed that his arm had been wrapped where the snake creature had bitten him earlier, and various bandages covered the small cuts and burns he'd received in the attack. "Thanks," he said quietly.

Tachibana walked silently over to the sofa where Ryoma sat propped up, and seated himself at its end. "When I first saw you, I knew that there was something unusual about you," he began, and held up his hand to quiet An when she tried to interrupt. "But I didn't know what, or how to find out. And I didn't think you were dangerous, so I didn't try too hard. But whatever your secret is, don't think that you can keep it now. I want answers." His voice was calm, but left no room for arguments.

Ryoma considered this carefully, and lifted his eyes to meet Tachibana's. "Do you think I'm dangerous now?"

Tachibana took scant seconds to reply. "No," he said decisively. "I couldn't say why not, though."

"Like I told you, you don't have to worry about me. But I can't give you answers. I don't know what's going on either," Ryoma admitted.

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"I just woke up like this one day. I didn't use to have any powers," Ryoma said defensively.

"It's true, oniichan! I saw the first time Ryo-chan used her powers, she was really surprised," An interjected. "And she needed some place to stay, so I brought her here."

"Come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing you with Ryo-chan until rather recently," Tachibana began, following a rather dangerous train of thought. "And she's told us virtually nothing about herself, though I suspect that may be because there's nothing _to_ tell. Tell me, Ryo-chan, where did you come from? It seems to me that you didn't exist a few weeks ago," Tachibana said, looking at Ryoma intently.

"I existed. Just not like this," Ryoma replied. He could tell that if he tried to keep his identity secret from Tachibana any longer it would almost certainly be more trouble than it was worth. And though Ryoma didn't really know the older tennis player, he figured that Tachibana might be helpful in dealing with all the strange things that had been happening recently.

"Ryo-chan--" Ann began, looking alarmed, but Ryoma shot her a look and continued.

"We've met before I was like this. Don't you recognize me?" Ryoma smirked coyly at Tachibana's bewildered expression. "Mada mada dane." A disbelieving sort of recognition flashed across Tachibana's face, and he looked at Ryoma sharply.

"You . . . are a girl. You couldn't be--"

"But I am. Echizen Ryoma. I turn into a girl whenever I have to use my powers, and can't change back for a day," Ryoma said matter-of-factly. "Now you know."

"I suppose there is a certain resemblance. And your personality certainly isn't like any cute young girl's that I've ever met." Tachibana conceded slowly.

"It's true; Ryo-chan is Ryoma." An sighed. "But it was supposed to be a secret! That's why he's staying here instead of at home."

"A secret, you say? Who else knows?"

"My cousin, An, Momo-senpai, and now you," Ryoma replied dully.

"I suppose that explains why you're dressed as a girl," he said wryly, and Ryoma scowled at him. "I certainly wouldn't have recognized you. But don't worry, I'll keep your secret for you. I see no reason to tell anyone."

"No one would believe you anyway."

"I suppose not," Tachibana agreed. "And since it seems we both have some sort of powers, we're in this together anyway. Whoever that woman was that destroyed that tomb and attacked you seemed to recognize both of us somehow, and implied that there were more like us. She seemed to think our use of our powers was unimpressive, so I think it would be a good idea if we try to learn more about them," Tachibana said seriously. "And find out why she destroyed that tomb."

"I guess," Ryoma agreed unenthusiastically.

"We can start at the library, and see if we can find anything there. There may--"

"Don't bother," Ryoma said dismissively. "You won't find any books better than the one I have."

"A book! Where did you get a book like that? And why didn't you say something sooner?" An said disbelievingly.

"I found it in my attic, but I haven't had time to read much of it. But I remember that woman in the park called you a Guardian," he told Tachibana. "And I saw a chapter titled like that that in the contents."

"Strange. But then, all of this is strange." Tachibana shook his head. "And you think this book of yours will tell us about our powers?"

Ryoma nodded. "I think they're different though."

"Hmm. Try to read it then, and bring it with you the next time you come over. We should practice, if we can, in case either of us sense something like that happening again. I'm busy until Wednesday, but--"

"I'm not turning into a girl just for practice," Ryoma interrupted.

Tachibana looked at him curiously. "Why _have_ you been changing into a girl, then?"

"Things . . . keep attacking me. And I just respond."

"'Things', but never a person before now?" Ryoma shook his head. "Whatever's going on is probably escalating then," Tachibana observed grimly. "We'll have to stay alert, and try to find the other 'Guardians' that woman mentioned. Perhaps they can help us."

Ryoma looked at Tachibana dispassionately, unimpressed by his advice. Of course they'd want to find out if there were more people out there with powers like theirs – but where could they even begin to look?

------

"Inui says he's found some information." Tezuka said quietly, then paused. "And he seems very . . . excited."

The look of keen interest on Fuji's face made Tezuka feel slightly apprehensive, but he reminded himself that the best way to figure things out would be together. Inui had apparently taken Tezuka's request for information quite seriously, and had told him just that morning that he had found some 'highly interesting data'. So this time, Tezuka had been the one to visit Fuji's classroom at lunch, since he was sure that the tensai would want to be kept updated.

"That's wonderful news," Fuji replied, giving Tezuka a real smile."I can't wait to hear what Inui has to tell us." By 'us', Fuji surely meant the rest of the regulars. And as daunting as the prospect was, Tezuka realized that they should probably hear what Inui had to say too.

"We'll need to get everyone together at once. I don't want things to have to be repeated too much," Tezuka paused for a moment, considering his options. They all had rather different schedules during this week, except for school and tennis. And while he supposed he could wait until the weekend to hear what Inui had found out, he didn't think Inui and Fuji could, or rather, would. Today was only Monday, after all. "I'll let practice out a little early today, and send everyone but the regulars home," he said reluctantly. "We can meet in the club room after."

"Ah, this must be interesting, if you're cutting practice short," Fuji said lightly. "I can't wait."

Tezuka nodded curtly. He really was curious to hear what Inui had found out regarding the strange events that the tennis club's regulars had been experiencing, and was looking forward to discussing it. Everyone would be there, so they could finally get things figured out.

Chapter 6 Notes:

If you're confused or feeling left in the dark, don't worry. At this point you're not _supposed_ to know what's going on. Though stay tuned for next chapter, in which Inui explains all! Or tries to, at least . . .

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review and let me know what you think. :)


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 **

Ryoma was bored.

This was fairly unusual for him, since he would usually just practice tennis, do homework, or sleep if he had nothing else to do. But Ryoma was still stuck as a girl after yesterday's events, and so he couldn't even go to school, let alone play tennis in public. He wouldn't have even minded doing school work, since he would undoubtedly have some to make up for missing today. But all his books were at home.

An had cheerfully suggested that he come to school with her that morning, saying something about Ryoma being her cousin for the day. And though he didn't doubt that she could have talked her brother into going along with it, Ryoma had hastily refused. If An's female friends were anything like she was . . . he didn't even want to think about what they'd do to him if he went to school with her.

And that left him here at the Tachibana house, staring up at the ceiling of An's bedroom.

Even though he was still feeling a little drained from yesterday, he didn't want to sleep anymore. He was tired of sleeping. But he didn't want to go out in his current state, and didn't really even want to move, for that matter.

As he considered his options, something that he'd read part of in the chapter on 'Sleep' in the book from the attic drifted back to him. Ryoma already knew that he didn't have the power to throw energy balls, or to create shields like Tachibana could . . . but that book had given him an idea about something else he could try. He settled back down on the bed and shut his eyes, focusing on one goal as he fell asleep.

Ryoma jolted awake with a shock and found that he was no longer in An's bedroom, or anywhere else for that matter. He was surrounded by black empty space, which definitely wasn't what he had been trying for. Concentrating, he closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them the blackness around him began to lighten. Shapes began to form, and slowly but surely the world came into focus around him.

Ryoma was in his classroom at school. But though he was still a girl and out of uniform, no one seemed to notice that he was there. The teacher continued on with the lesson, and his classmates didn't even look up as he walked around the edge of the classroom. Boldly, he walked down the rows of desks, and was both satisfied and a bit disturbed as he concluded that he was totally invisible to everyone.

Curious as to just how much of a presence he had while out of his body, Ryoma tried brushing his hand against a desk. But it simply passed through, even though he _looked _perfectly solid. Spotting a boy asleep in the third row, Ryoma headed over to him and gave him a cautious poke. Nothing. Though he was fairly sure that he couldn't touch people, Ryoma wanted to be sure. Reaching out his hand, Ryoma placed it squarely on the boy's head . . . only to feel himself go _inside_ . . .

_A riderless bicycle whizzed by on a twisted blue path, dropping a trail of books behind it as it went. Ryoma automatically bent down and picked one up, though when he opened it he found nothing but nonsense inside._

"_Ahh, wait!" came a frantic cry, and a boy, the boy who he had just touched, came running past him. "That's my—hey," he slowed, and backtracked to where Ryoma was standing. "Who are you?" he asked, eyeing Ryoma with interest. "You're pretty cute. Do you think you could help me catch my bike?"_

_Ryoma didn't bother to respond. Slamming the book shut, he turned on his heel and started in in the opposite direction. The beads on his bracelet began to glow and sent sparks up his arm, which only added to his annoyance._

"_Hey, don't leave!" the boy whined, now running after Ryoma instead of his bike. Ryoma glared at him, but the boy was obviously dense and didn't get that he wanted nothing to do with him. Gritting his teeth in irritation, Ryoma picked up his pace. He wanted _out . . .

Ryoma nearly gasped as he withdrew his hand from the boy's forehead, and looked down at it in shock. Had he really just slipped into that boy's dream? He would have thought it impossible, but after everything else that had happened recently it didn't seem so far-fetched.

But he'd had enough strangeness for now. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on An's bedroom, and when he opened them he was there. And . . . so was his sleeping body. Unnerved by the unnatural sight, he carefully reached out to his body and slipped inside it, then woke with a start.

Ryoma grinned smugly. He was thoroughly pleased that he had powers of his own, even if they were relatively useless. But he was the tiniest bit bothered that he had been so successful in his attempt at astral projection. He hadn't read the whole section about it in the book, but from what he had picked up he knew that it was not one of the powers that these 'Guardians' had, whoever they were besides Tachibana Kippei.

And where did that leave Ryoma?

------

Silver eyes opened as he came back to himself, and pale lips curved upwards in a smile. Such a fascinating creature this little tenshi was, that she was able to evade him even in the plane that he was most accustomed to. Though it was rather inconvenient that she had found something to keep demons away from her spirit while she was out of her body, Adriel didn't mind. It would make things more interesting, and, more importantly, would annoy Orias to no end as he pursued her.

Though he did wonder how she had possibly come into possession of that bracelet in the first place. He'd been sure that all of the artifacts from the original site had been stashed away uselessly in some government building by equally useless government workers, but that was apparently not the case.

But no matter. He had plenty of his own toys, and she and her Guardians were still no match for them.

------

The atmosphere on the tennis courts during practice that day was markedly different than usual, Fuji observed. Of course he himself was very much looking forward to hearing what Inui had to say, and Inui looked as though he was going to burst from the anticipation. But the rest of the regulars seemed almost nervous for some reason, and the usual light conversation and even squabbling were markedly absent.

Echizen was also absent, a fact that a boisterous first year had loudly informed Tezuka of at the beginning of practice. Fuji's interest had piqued at this, as this was the second practice that their freshman had missed in a relatively short amount of time. Though Tezuka had said nothing, he was sure that he'd taken note of this as well. It was somewhat concerning, and Fuji hoped that his young teammate wasn't really getting sick.

"That's it for today. Everyone off the courts." The tennis club members looked at each other in surprise, but quickly headed to change as they saw Tezuka's stern face.

"Ehh? Why's Tezuka cutting practice short?" Eiji tilted his head to one side and looked in askance at Oishi, who looked rather bewildered.

"I don't know, though I'm sure he has a good reason," the fukubuchou assured his partner. "Right, Tezuka?"

"Mmm." Tezuka inclined his head, and addressed the regulars. "Everyone get changed, then go the club meeting room."

Fuji gave Tezuka an approving smile, and followed his teammates to get changed. Said teammates seemed rather prone to speculative chatter this afternoon, though, and to get them moving he hinted that Inui might have something of interest for them in the meeting room that they wouldn't want to make wait. They changed in record time, and he herded them into the meeting room with Tezuka following close behind.

After a few minutes of good natured elbowing and chair-swapping everyone had settled into their seats, except for Inui of course. Seigaku's data man stood at the front of the room beside an overhead projector, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. Fuji was delighted to see that he even had a laptop hooked up, meaning that they may be lucky enough to be treated to a slide show of some sort.

Tezuka moved to the front of the small room, and the noise died down. "Though this is unrelated to tennis, it has come to my attention that many of you have seen or experienced things rather out of the ordinary," Tezuka started, looking vaguely uncomfortable. Some of the tennis players looked up sharply at this, and others looked away. But they all had a reaction of some sort, which further confirmed Fuji's belief that they knew what Tezuka was talking about. "Inui may have spoken to some of you about this, as he has been gathering information and researching these . . . events. Now that we're all together, he'll tell us what he's found."

"But, Ochibi's not here! Shouldn't he know too?" Eiji piped up, looking at Tezuka earnestly.

"I'll talk to him about it later," came the curt reply. Seeing that there were no further questions, Tezuka returned to his seat and motioned for Inui to go ahead. _Finally_.

"To start with," Inui began, "I cross-checked all of the unusual sightings and events that have been reported by all of us, including spontaneous energy generation, animals with glowing eyes, and the sighting of a girl with a wing-like aura. Most of these are rather indistinct supernatural phenomena, and would have been difficult to attribute to any one specific cause. However, the girl was another matter. I was able to find very little on the subject of angelic auras at the library or on the internet, so I enlisted the aid of my cousin at Tokyo University."

"My cousin happens to be in field of archaeology, which was very fortunate in this case. With his assistance, I discovered the existence of a highly classified government project by the name of 'Recombinant Angel'. The project originated from an archaeological excavation of a monumental ancient temple site in Iraq in 1939, which was in itself unusual as very few digs took place during this time, as it was a difficult area to access."

Inui tapped a key on his laptop, and a black and white image came up onto the overhead. Fuji's passive expression turned to one of curiosity as he saw the cavernous room, which was like nothing he'd ever imagined existed. Except for that girl in its center . . .

"This," Inui informed them, "is an photo from the site, taken in the main underground chamber. It was here that archaeologists, apparently working for a branch of an unspecified government agency, discovered the existence of the non-human being that is visible in the center of the chamber. Based on the texts and other artifacts that were also found at the site, the archaeologists determined that she was believed to be of angelic origin at the time of her internment. However--"

He was interrupted by Eiji, who began pointing and waving his arms animatedly. "It's her, it's that girl we saw!" Everyone turned to look at the their excited teammate, who then turned to look at him. "Don't you think so, Fuji? You saw her too!"

"There is a certain resemblance," Fuji replied slowly, his eyes opening further to examine the image more carefully. But no matter how he looked at the girl in the image, she looked extremely similar to the girl that he and Eiji had seen that day.

"I'm afraid that would be impossible," Inui said regretfully. "The girl you see here was dead when they found her. It seems that whatever sustained her inside the crystal was presumably damaged when they opened the chamber, killing her. It is interesting that you believe you saw her though, which brings me to my next point."

The image on the overhead flicked off, and a grainy color image of a what looked to be a laboratory took its place.

"After having analyzed the artifacts and written materials from the site, the archaeoligists believed that the girl's death could prove to be catastrophic. The documentation that had been left with her clearly indicated that she was meant to protect against the rising of any of the ancient demons that were believed to exist in the Underworld, so this was understandable."

"Demons? That does seem far-fetched," Fuji put in, and watched for the others' response. But while Tezuka looked skeptical, the other players looked more shocked than anything else.

"Perhaps. However, many of the artifacts found at the site had properties that could only be described as 'magical', such as a staff that burst into flames and a gauntlet that turned invisible. Given the existence of such items as well as the body of the tenshi, it would not have been unreasonable for them to believe that demons could exist as well," Inui countered.

"But if the tenshi died, who's that girl we've been seeing?" Eiji questioned. Momoshiro, Fuji noted, also looked particularly interested as Inui replied.

"As I said, the archaeoligists realized that the tenshi from the site may have been important for future world safety, and the government branch that they were working for took this quite seriously. Project Recombinant Angel was thus initiated, for the purpose of creating a replica of the original tenshi through genetic and recombinant DNA technology when it became available decades later. However," Inui paused for a moment, and his audience waited with baited breath.

"The project was a failure. The first babies born as a result of the program were either stillborn or died shortly after birth, and the last one, though it lived, was an ordinary human."

"How could they be sure of that? Surely a baby can't be expected to work magic," Fuji asked lightly, though anyone who knew him would be able to tell that he was quite serious.

"An excellent question, Fuji," Inui said approvingly. "The last child born was male. For reasons unknown, certain parts of the tenshi's genetic code are incompatible with the Y-chromosome, making it impossible for a tenshi to be male. The fact that some of you may have seen a tenshi, and that we have gained these powers at all, is quite inexplicable."

Inui frowned, and looked at his notes. "According to the texts found with the tenshi, nine Guardians would eventually be created for her. These Guardians were supposed to be the first nine people to come into direct contact with her after any high level demon summoning ritual being initiated anywhere. Given recent happenings, I believe it is highly probable that such an event has already occurred, and that the nine of us, counting Echizen, are indeed these Guardians."

"How can that be if there's no tenshi?" Tezuka finally spoke, his voice low and smooth. "And what about that girl?"

"Those are most perplexing questions," Inui admitted. "And I don't have sufficient data to fully answer either. However, it is possible that the government's data was in error and that a tenshi does still exist, as it would be unlikely that a girl such as one you described would be uninvolved in this."

"But, I don't remember ever having contact with any girl like that," Taka said apprehensively.

"Maybe we all brushed by her in a crowd one day?" Oishi suggested doubtfully.

"Possible," Inui conceded. "But unlikely."

"I don't think how it happened is what matters most right now," Fuji said, his usual levity absent from his voice. "The important thing is to figure out what we should do now."

Tezuka nodded in agreement, as Fuji knew he would. "Inui, did you find out anything else about the purpose of the Guardians -- us?"

"Do we have to guard that girl?" Eiji asked anxiously. "If we do, that's going to be hard! She ran away when we tried to talk to her," he said mournfully.

"Hmm," Inui paused. "The tenshi is supposed to be an ultimate weapon against high-order demons, and it is the job of the Guardians to protect her as her powers are supposedly not very useful for more outright forms of offense and defense. However, the main job of the Guardians besides this is to prevent the rising or summoning of such demons to Earth in the first place."

"But, I thought a demon had to have been summoned already for us to have become Guardians?" Eiji asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"Ah, but the initial summoning ritual does not cause a demon to rise. It only breaks the first of many barriers," Inui replied calmly. "It is after this first barrier has been broken that Guardians are created to ensure that the rest stay intact. According to the sources at the site, five points in the form of a star exist to seal most high-level demons. These are what must be preserved to prevent such a demon from rising after the initial summoning ritual."

"Oh," Eiji said in a small voice, and an awkward silence descended on the room. It certainly was a lot to take in, and even Fuji was rather disconcerted by the information that Inui had presented to them. But his teammates were nothing if not resilient, and after a long moment the room erupted as everyone began to talk at once.

"Nya, we've got to do something! We're not doing our jobs!"

"Calm down, Eiji, we don't even know _what_ we're doing yet."

A hiss. "Did you find anything that mentioned squirrels with glowing eyes?"

"That would be moderately probable, though I have found no such data."

"I didn't see anything like that either."

"Quiet!"

Everyone immediately settled down as Tezuka gave them one of his almost-glares. Everyone except Momoshiro, that is, who had been unusually quiet the entire time anyway.

"I think the best course of action at this point would be to concentrate our efforts on finding the girl, who is in all likelihood this tenshi." Tezuka was finally sounding authoritative, and Fuji hoped it woud last, as he really didn't want to have to take the lead in this. "She may be able to provide us with some direction. Also try to observe and control any powers you notice having. They may be useful in the future."

Agreement was voiced all around, except, again, for Momoshiro, who only nodded half-heartedly. Fuji looked at him sharply, and tried to figure out the cause of the second-year's uncharacteristic behavior.

"Saa, Momoshiro, have you seen the tenshi?" Fuji asked, unsmiling.

Momoshiro looked rather like a cornered animal at that moment. "Ah, of course not! I would have mentioned it if I had," he said with a nervous laugh. "But . . . you could ask Echizen. Not that I know he's seen her, or anything, but you know how he is. Tezuka-buchou ought to ask him when he talks to him," he said in a rush, and Fuji was extremely curious as to what it was he was hinting at. Tezuka seemed to pick up on it too, and nodded in agreement.

"Wow, I can't believe we have magic powers!" Eiji exclaimed, breaking the solemn atmosphere with his usual enthusiasm.

"It is quite amazing," Oishi agreed, giving his partner a small smile as the mood lightened. "Its fortunate that your cousin happens to be an archaeologist, Inui. He must have a very prestigious position at the university to have access to such classified information."

"Actually, my cousin is a student at the university."

"Is he working on his doctorate, then?" Fuji asked politely.

"He is a second-year undergraduate," Inui said matter-of-factly, adjusting his glasses.

"But . . . how . . . " Oishi trailed off, a shocked look settling on his face.

"Sometimes it's better not to ask," Fuji said knowingly, and Inui gave him an approving look. Though normally Fuji would have been curious to know more about Inui's undoubtedly interesting cousin, he let the matter drop. He had far more interesting things to investigate. Besides where Echizen had been, there was also now the matter of the girl.

That girl, that _tenshi_, was a complete mystery to him; and an utterly captivating one at that. And how could he ignore such a temptation?

-------

Chapter 7 Notes:

Whew, that was long! Can we say "info dump"? XD But now you hopefully have a much better idea of what is going on, even though there are still some things that haven't been explained (yet). I think this chapter is pretty clear, though if you have a question feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer it, provided its something you're "supposed" to know at this point. ;) And don't worry! That's as plot-heavy as it gets; the following chapters are lighter and more action oriented.

Next up, in Chapter 8: An interlude at the library, which is not nearly as peaceful as it sounds . . .

Please let me know what you think. :)


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

This was getting ridiculous.

On his way home from school, another one of those snake creatures had appeared literally out of thin air, and had come at him with those same sharp little teeth. Though it was bigger than the last one, Ryoma had been able to scare it off before it managed to sink its teeth into him. But at this point, he almost wished that he'd just let it bite him – he'd rather be a boy with a bite on his arm than a girl, like he was now. Yet again.

And to make matters worse, it was the middle of the week, meaning that he would have to miss school again tomorrow. Nanako had kept her promise to help him keep his secret, and had even gone so far as to cover for him with his parents and to call his school to excuse his absences But though his teachers and classmates seemed to accept the excuses easily enough, his teammates did not.

Momo had insisted that Ryoma tell him everything, which Ryoma had reluctantly done. Oishi had asked him about his health, and Eiji had welcomed him back by nearly strangling him. Ryoma had managed to avoid Tezuka, who had been trying to talk to him about something all week, but it was Fuji's behavior that bothered him the most. Fuji hadn't actually said anything, but even the rest of the team had noticed that he was watching Ryoma like a hawk. And Ryoma was more than a little unnerved by this fact.

Suppressing a sigh, Ryoma pulled out his cell phone and called An, as it looked like he would be spending another day at her house. But An had a group project to work on, she told him regretfully, and so she wouldn't be able to meet him for a couple of hours.

Ryoma really didn't want to be out in public looking like a girl, especially by himself. But the only other person he could think of to hang out with was Momo, and that was definitely not an option. The junior was loud and attracted too much attention, and if anyone they knew saw Momo walking around with a _girl_ he'd be teased mercilessly about his 'girlfriend' for weeks. Not that Ryoma would have minded Momo getting teased, but Momo would probably whine to him about it the whole time too.

After thinking about it for a moment Ryoma decided to go to the library to wait for An, figuring that it was the place he was least likely to be bothered at. People hardly ever tried to talk to someone that they didn't know at a library, and it was easy enough to avoid notice by sticking your head in a book or sleeping in the back. So, Ryoma sat himself down in one of the cubbies in the back and pulled out a book he had to read for school. He finished it before long, though, and as he rummaged through his bag for something else to do he came up empty. And as much as he would have liked to take a quick nap, he just didn't feel comfortable with the idea of sleeping in public right now.

But fortunately, he _was_ in a library, so there was plenty of reading material. Picking up his bag, Ryoma wandered around the rows of books until he finally picked one off the shelf and headed back to his spot . . . which someone had taken while he'd been up. All of the single seats, in fact, had been taken, so Ryoma reluctantly started back through the aisles of shelves towards the tables in the front.

He heard several muted thuds then, as a stack of books on the other side of the shelf he was walking by fell to the floor. Ryoma rolled his eyes, wondering what idiot had knocked them over, but then stiffened as he heard a familiar voice.

"Unya! I'm sorry, Fuji, I didn't mean to drop our books on your foot!" Eiji wailed, and Ryoma cringed at the noise.

"That's okay," came Fuji's much softer voice. "Its lucky we found so many for our project at least, don't you think?"

Ryoma had heard enough. Quickly but quietly, he slipped out of the aisle and began to walk away from his senpai, and fought the urge to speed up as he heard them fall into step behind him. He ducked into another aisle and stuck his head in a book until he heard them pass, and then let out a quiet sigh of relief. He reached up to put the book back, and started violently as he felt a hand on his.

"They really should have stepladders here, don't you think?"

Ryoma turned around slowly, and froze as Fuji took the book from him and shelved it. Looking anywhere but at his frighteningly devious teammate's bright blue eyes, Ryoma ducked his head down in what could have been taken to be a nod and then bolted out of the aisle and to anywhere that was away from Fuji. He didn't know why Fuji was so interested in him like this, and he didn't think he wanted to find out.

But losing Fuji was no easy task, as Ryoma quickly discovered. Though after spending a good fifteen minutes ducking behind shelves and carts, Ryoma thought he might have finally found a good hiding spot in the periodicals section.

For a moment, anyway.

"Hey, kawaii-chan! Don't run away this time, okay? I just want to talk to you!" Ryoma looked up to see Eiji standing a few tables over, waving at him from the other side of the microfilm readers. He had been so busy evading Fuji that he had completely forgotten about his other senpai, and Ryoma cursed himself for his mistake as he darted between the newspaper racks and out of the periodicals section.

"Waah, Fuji, is there something on my face?" Eiji's voice carried much too well in the otherwise quiet library. "Cute girls never run away from me like that!"

Ryoma didn't bother to listen for Fuji's reply, but hoped that Eiji could keep him occupied for a moment at least. Ryoma made a beeline for the reference room, remembering that there was an exit there that let out into an adjoining college. He could hear Fuji and Eiji getting closer now – mostly Eiji – and he turned the corner into the reference room.

And ran head-on into a tall, solid body. He landed on the floor in a heap, and then froze in shock as he looked up to see his buchou. Tezuka looked back at him with a rather odd and disconcerting expression on his face, and then reached down and grabbed Ryoma's arm in a firm but careful grip. Before Ryoma could protest, Tezuka had pulled him up bodily from the floor.

"Sorry," Ryoma mumbled, more than slightly alarmed by the fact that _Tezuka_ of all people had seen him like this. He tried to move away, only to be stopped by the large hand that was still encircling his forearm. "Um . . ." Ryoma looked at Tezuka's hand, then made a slight move to pull away. When the hold didn't loosen, he looked up at Tezuka uncertainly.

Tezuka met his eyes, and then dropped Ryoma's arm as if it had burned him. Ryoma immediately took a step back and turned towards the door, but hesitated as he heard a low voice.

"I know what you are," Tezuka said quietly. "You shouldn't be afraid of us."

Ryoma nearly stopped breathing for an instant. "I'm not --" He trailed off sharply as he heard Eiji's voice filter into the reference room as he said something to Fuji. "I have to go now," he said, hating the desperation that leaked into his voice. More than anything right now, he didn't want to be found out by his teammates. What would they think of him if they knew he turned into a girl?

"Ah." Tezuka said, conveying understanding in that one syllable as he glanced briefly towards the entrance to the reference room. "I see. But we still need to talk," he said seriously. But Tezuka didn't say anything further, and let Ryoma run out the door just moments before Fuji and Eiji came in.

He didn't stop running until he met An, four blocks down.

------

"You let her go." Fuji gave him a disapproving look, which was no small feat considering that the smile never left his face.

"What! Why'd you do that?" Eiji said, looking very disappointed.

"What else could I do?" Tezuka replied simply. "She's obviously frightened of us for some reason."

"Or maybe she has something to hide," Fuji countered.

"Scaring her more won't help." Tezuka gazed levelly at Fuji, but Fuji just stared right back, unconcerned.

"And we might never get answers if we don't. We're not going to hurt her, Tezuka. And if that girl really is who we think, this is for her own good as well."

Tezuka frowned and let out a slow breath, but conceded the point. "True. But Fuji," he warned, "Try to be gentle. Don't do anything rash."

"You know I always use my best judgement." Fuji's smile widened slightly, which did nothing to reassure him. Tezuka didn't doubt that Fuji could eventually manage to catch the girl and talk to her, but he did doubt that he could do so in any conventional manner.

For the girl's sake, he sincerely hoped that she'd stop trying to run from them – Fuji especially.

------

Chapter 8 Notes:

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but this is just where it needed to be ended. I don't want to have to cut the next big sequence of events that are coming up in half. So, the next chapter will be on the long side.

I don't know in any detail what the inside of a Japanese library looks like, so I used the layout that seems to be common in all the high school, public, and college libraries that I've seen in the US.


	10. Chapter 9

_Here's a nice action-oriented chapter for you all, so sorry for keeping you waiting! Chapter 10 will be up _much_ sooner this time. :)_

**Chapter 9**

"Tachibana."

Tachibana looked over as he approached, looking mildly surprised. "Tezuka. Is there something you wanted?"

Tezuka fell into step with him as he headed back from the water fountains. Fudomine, along with Seigaku, were two of the many tennis teams that had gathered for that day's tennis tournament. And after noticing that that girl – the tenshi -- had worn a Fudomine uniform when they'd seen her last, he'd thought it would be a good idea for them to ask someone who went there if they knew anything about her. Unfortunately, as far as he knew it seemed that Fudomine's tennis team was the closest any of them had to acquaintances at said school.

"If its about our lineup--"

Tezuka shook his head. "I need your help. It's not about tennis."

Tachibana looked at him curiously. "Oh? Go ahead then, though I make no promises."

"We're looking for a girl. She's small and thin, with long dark hair and gold brown eyes. She goes to Fudomine, and is probably a first year. That's all we know."

Tachibana seemed to take a moment to digest this, unidentifiable expressions flitting across his face. "By 'we', I assume you mean Seigaku's team?" Tezuka nodded. "What do you want with this girl?" he asked neutrally.

"It's complicated." Tezuka let out a breath. "Though our intentions are honorable."

"Complicated?"

"Very. Its a long story. But its important that we speak with her." Tezuka replied with as much honesty as he could, not wanting to lie but knowing that he couldn't very well tell the whole truth either. But he was afraid that that might not be enough, as Tachibana was already looking rather suspicious.

There was a long moment of awkward silence before Tachibana replied. "I see," he said slowly. "I've never seen a girl like that at school, though. I'll . . . keep an eye out though." Abruptly, Tachibana turned away from him, and left him with a slight wave.

With the vague feeling that he may have done something to help their search, Tezuka headed back to the courts.

The games were about to begin.

* * *

"Game and match won by Seigaku's Echizen, six games to one!" 

After shaking hands with his boring opponent, Ryoma walked back over to the bench where his teammates were. It was the weekend again, a Saturday afternoon, and Seigaku's tennis team was playing in one of the prefectural tournaments. But all the interesting teams had already played, and Ryoma didn't have any more matches scheduled. So he sat down on the edge of the bench next to Momo, and jiggled his knees impatiently as the next match began. Kaidoh was up, and was thoroughly beating his unimpressive opponent. Uninterested by the spectacle, Ryoma grabbed his bag and stood up to leave.

"Oi, where do you think you're going?" Momo called after him, and Tezuka sent them both a warning look.

"To get something to drink."

"Be careful not to wander too far," Inui advised. "As this is an unfamiliar area."

"Yeah, don't get lost!" Momo snickered.

"Hmph." Ryoma headed to the vending machines to buy a Ponta, and then went over to the small wooded area in the center of the park. If he had to sit around and do nothing, he'd rather do it under a tree than on a hard bench.

But he didn't see the creature that was in the tree until it was too late . . .

* * *

"Hmm." Inui looked down at his watch and frowned. "Echizen should have returned by now. Momoshiro, please go and find him." 

With minimal grumbling, Momoshiro complied. Fuji watched as he left the courts, wondering himself what their freshman was up to. And between Echizen's unusual absences and his avoidance of Tezuka, Fuji had found himself wondering that a lot lately.

"I think I'll take a short walk." Fuji smiled pleasantly as he picked up his bag and walked off of the courts, paying no mind to the strange looks that his teammates were giving him. As he looked around the area where he had seen Momoshiro heading towards, the sound of muffled voices from the picnic area nearby caught his attention. Sidling up behind a nearby tree, Fuji moved closer to listen as he recognized Momoshiro's voice.

"Ah, fine, I'll tell them. But it was a good game, don't you think they'll be suspicious?"

A short silence, then the soft voice of a young female. "It doesn't matter."

Risking a look around the tree, Fuji's eyes snapped open as he saw the girl that Momoshiro was talking to. It was_ her_. And even more interesting, Momoshiro seemed to know her. But why was he keeping it a secret?

"I called An already. I'm meeting her after Fudomine finishes for the day," the girl went on in a clipped voice.

"Well, I guess I'll see you Monday then. Try not to get attacked by any more demon things!" This was said in a light voice, though no laughter followed. He heard footsteps then, and saw Momoshiro walk past as he started back to the courts – and still no Echizen. Softer, faster steps could also be heard, and as Fuji came out from behind the tree he saw the retreating form of the girl as she began to disappear through the trees. Making a quick decision, Fuji let Momoshiro go and followed her instead. Momoshiro definitely knew something, but probably not anything that he hadn't found out from her.

The girl seemed somewhat skittish, and it was difficult even for him to follow her without being noticed. He watched from a safe distance as she sat down under a tree near the outskirts of the park, though just when it looked like she wasn't going anywhere she jumped to her feet. She tensed, and her eyes fixed on something moving nearby.

It was a cat, or at least it looked like one. Small and grey, it didn't seem like much, but even from this distance Fuji could see a strange red glint in its eyes. Whatever it was, he decided, it was _not_ a cat. He recalled Kaidoh mentioning a squirrel-like animal with similar features, but before he could ponder the matter further the girl took off running after the creature as it sprinted away.

Fuji sprang after her, dropping all pretenses of not following her as he nearly lost sight of his speedy little quarry. He followed her through streets crowded with office buildings, until she finally stopped in front of one of them. It was an old building, probably from the Edo period, but it looked as though it was being used as an office building now. But he could tell that something was very wrong inside, and not only by the small crowd of panicked workers that was stampeding out of it. There was something sinister emanating from the building that he could feel as clearly as he could see the workers coming out.

The girl's aura was more visible than ever as she stepped closer to the building, which was nearly vibrating with some intangible energy. And then she was gone; inside the building, and out of his sight. Fuji ran in after her, only to find himself nearly blinded by the white, swirling masses of papers that flew through the building's halls. And she was still nowhere in sight. The wind picked up, and he used his arms to shield his face against the razor-sharp paper edges as he turned a corner and found his way to the building's center.

A tall, lithe figure stood on the far side of the room, energy gathering ominously around him. White hair floated around him, and his pale eyes, which had been cloudy and unfocused, abruptly sharpened and turned towards Fuji.

"Well, hello." His voice was lilting and pleasant as he raised one hand, and something began to spark in it. Fuji tensed, raising his own hands instinctively, but whatever he was expecting never came.

The girl seemed to appear out of nowhere, her small body struggling against the wind as she pushed towards the white-haired man. The words she shouted out then were from no language that Fuji recognized, though as soon as they had been spoken he felt a different type of energy burst from her. The man staggered backwards as she released it, but he quickly recovered.

"Now that's not the way you do it either, little one," he said mildly, giving her a strange smile. He made as if to move towards her, but then, laying eyes on Fuji again, turned away. "But perhaps this will be a good lesson for you both." He moved his hand into his shadow and _pulled_ at it, bringing out a shadowy, four-legged thing that was easily twice Fuji's size.

"I hope you're a passable Guardian," he said off-handedly, and the girl's eyes widened at this. "I would hate to see such a pretty thing as your tenshi get maimed." Whatever energy he had been controlling suddenly dissipated, and with a flash of white hair he disappeared through the far doorway. "And by the way, this point will be coming down in a minute, so do take care," his voice floated back.

Fuji's eyes narrowed in both anger and concentration, and his mind raced as he considered how to deal with the giant, impossible shadow creature that stood ominously between them and the exit.

"Get behind me," he ordered the girl, who, after shooting him an uncertain glare, dashed up against his back. As she moved, the shadow creature sprung into motion after her, and Fuji grabbed her and rolled them both out of its path and behind a nearby desk.

"It must react to movement from us," Fuji observed, trying to ignore the girl's protests as she was pinned beneath him. "Maybe--" He never finished his thought, as the desk was suddenly slammed into a wall by a dark limb. He quickly got to his feet and stepped back to evade another thrashing appendage, pulling the girl with him.

"Put your hands together and think about killing it," the girl hissed in his ear, tugging him aside as the creature lashed out again. Fuji gave her a questioning look, wondering how that could possibly help. But having no better ideas, he pressed his fingers together in a natural seeming position and concentrated on his desire to destroy the shadowy creature. He felt an intense chill travel through his hands, and a stream of burning cold energy ripped out of them and into the creature. The creature froze on the spot, and then after a tense moment turned pale and shattered into nothingness.

And Fuji's breath nearly stilled in his chest as he realized that _he_ was the cause. So this was what a Guardian could do . . .

"We have to go! The whole building's going to collapse!" As if to accentuate the girl's warning, the ceiling above began to rattle ominously as energy crackled through the lights. With a nod, he grabbed her by the wrist and ran blindly for the exit. Ceiling tiles and light fixtures began to rain down on them, and they made a dive for the door out just as the hall behind them collapsed in on itself.

He stood outside in stunned silence, and watched as the entire building slowly imploded in on itself. "Are you hurt?" He turned his attention to the girl, and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Any doubts he may have had were gone; he was quite certain that she was, somehow, the tenshi they were looking for. And the last thing he needed now was for her to run away again; he didn't really feel like chasing her at the moment.

"Why did it have to be you?" she huffed, and then let out a small sigh. Fuji frowned slightly at the strange reaction. "Could be worse, I guess." With that, she turned and started walking back towards the park.

"Its not polite to run away from someone when they save you," Fuji said lightly, following after her.

"Who's running? I'm leading, you're following," she replied smartly, giving him a sideways glance. Amused, Fuji fell into step beside her, but decided not to push her further. She had acknowledged him, which was enough for the moment. But somewhere in the back of his mind, Fuji _knew_ that that he was missing some important connection, one that bounds of rational thought prevented him from making.

As they returned to the spot that she had been sitting by before, Fuji saw a red-headed girl waiting there that hurried over as they approached.

"Ryo-chan!" So that was the tenshi's name. "Ah, you're a mess! What happened?" The redhead started picking bits of plaster from 'Ryo-chan's' hair, all the while eyeing Fuji warily.

"Same as before, sort of," Ryo-chan answered vaguely, brushing the other girl's hands aside.

"And what about . . ." she trailed off, looking questioningly towards Fuji.

"He's like your brother. I think the rest of them are too."

"Saa, Ryo-chan, aren't you going to introduce us?" Fuji interjected, his curiosity more than slightly piqued by the girls' conversation. The tenshi started to reply, but the other girl beat her to it.

"I'm Tachibana An," she introduced herself, holding out her hand cautiously. "And you're Fuji Syuusuke, right?"

"Yes, and its a pleasure to meet you. I believe I've met your brother; Tachibana Kippei, isn't it?" Fuji said politely as he shook her hand.

"That's him!" An confirmed. "Um, Ryo-chan, does he know . . ."

"No."

"Aren't you going to tell him?"

"Tell me what? There's a lot of things I'd like to ask you, Ryo-chan." Fuji's smile widened, to the apparent dismay of An. Ryo-chan just looked annoyed. "You know, you look even cuter when you're annoyed." This earned him a glare.

"I'll tell you what you what I know," Ryo-chan said, with obvious reluctance. "But not here."

* * *

"I wonder where Fuji went?" Eiji pondered, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he followed the rest of the team off the courts. "I bet he's going to get in a lot of trouble though! Just leaving like that without saying anything made Ryuzaki-sensei mad I bet." 

"It is strange that he didn't come back," Oishi said worriedly. "And with Echizen getting sick so suddenly, its a good thing the tournament's finished for the day."

"Both of their absences are very strange," Inui commented suddenly, startling the pair. "Given Echizen's performance during his matches today, it is highly improbable that he is ill. And it is also unusual that Momoshiro did not see Fuji while he was looking for Echizen."

The three of them fell into silence for a moment, and various degrees of puzzlement slowly dawned on their faces.

"Do you think--"

"Maybe he found--"

"We must be--"

They stopped as they all began to speak at once, and Tezuka shot them a questioning look.

"I can only conclude," Inui began again, "That there is important data that we are missing."

Tezuka silently agreed with this assessment. Though, knowing Fuji, Inui would have his data soon enough.

* * *

Chapter 9 Notes:

None! If I missed anything though, please do ask for clarification. And as always, let me know what you think:)


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

After the strange events of the past weeks, Tachibana Kippei really shouldn't have been surprised by what he found in his living room when he got home from the tournament that day. Without saying a word, he pulled An into the kitchen.

"An," he said with forced calmness. "Why is Fuji Syuusuke in our living room?"

"Ah, about that. You see, he has powers like you do." An answered nervously.

He gave her a startled look. "He's a Guardian, you mean."

"Yes . . . and _Ryo-chan_ thinks the rest of Seigaku's team probably are too."

Tachibana resisted the urge to sigh, but didn't ask anything further before going back into the living room. If Tezuka's earlier inquiry was any indication, Echizen was probably right.

"Fuji," he acknowledged. The other player sat on one end of the sofa, with An on the other side and Echizen looking very uncomfortable between them.

Fuji got straight to the point, still wearing that unnerving smile of his. "Tachibana. Ryo-chan tells me that we have something in common."

Tachibana shot Echizen a quick look, raising an eyebrow in silent inquiry. "Ryo-chan?" Did Fuji really not know who 'Ryo-chan' was?

"Don't call me that, Fuji-senpai. I'm not really a girl you know," Echizen crossed his arms. Fuji seemed rather amused by this statement, which Tachibana couldn't help but find funny.

"Oh, you're not? You're very cute for a boy, then. And I don't recall knowing any young Fudomine students," Fuji said in that same calm voice.

"Mada mada dane, senpai," Echizen smirked. "I really thought you would've recognized me by now."

Startling blue eyes flew open and looked at Echizen carefully, and then widened ever so slightly. "Echizen-kun?"

"Bingo." Echizen's uncrossed his arms and shifted slightly away from Fuji, who only moved closer in response.

"Ah. That explains a lot," Fuji mused, and Tachibana could practically see the gears turning in the other's mind. "And I was very much hoping for an explanation."

Echizen quickly told his teammate everything they knew so far, from his transformation to the recent attacks, with An filling in the many details that he neglected to mention. All in all, Tachibana thought that Fuji took it unnervingly well.

"How very interesting," Fuji finally said after a brief silence. "And you're right. The rest of the regulars, and Inui, are the other eight Guardians, and Inui's cousin found some very interesting information for us about you. Did you know that you're a genetically engineered tenshi?"

Echizen gave Fuji a look that clearly indicated that he questioned the other's sanity. And Tachibana couldn't really blame him; after all, the idea of that little brat being a heavenly being seemed rather absurd, no matter how cute he was.

"Saa, I guess not. Though you know about the Guardians? The nine of us were made into Guardians when we came into contact with you, Ryo-chan, after a demon summoning began. Our job is to keep the demon from rising, by protecting you and five points somewhere in the area that seal it. Though how you're the tenshi is a fascinating question."

"Oh." Echizen frowned at the nickname, but didn't seem to have much to say in reply to the bombshell that Fuji had just dropped. "Senpai?" he began, almost hesitantly. "Are you going to tell the others about me now?"

"I think you should do that yourself." Fuji's smile widened, and he patted Echizen on the head. "But don't worry, I'm sure they'll think you're as cute as I do." Predictably, Echizen scowled at this, and Tachibana felt a twinge of pity for the boy-turned-girl when he thought of the eccentric bunch that made up Seigaku's regulars.

"It was a good idea having Ryo-chan stay here," Fuji said to Tachibana approvingly. "None of us have been attacked by any of the strange creatures we've seen, so there must be something about her that makes an appealing target."

Echizen looked rather affronted at this. "I'm only staying here so my parents don't find out."

"But Fuji has a point. That woman we met and the man from the building you just came from seemed to have some regard for Guardians, so maybe that's why you've never been attacked here," Tachibana suggested.

An, who had been silent until now, spoke up in agreement. "Aniki's right! You're a monster magnet, so you should stay near him."

"Or one of us," Fuji said, a slight edge to his tone. "It's settled then. Ryo-chan, be sure not to go off alone when you're like this, all right?"

Echizen was clearly Not Happy with the arrangement, but was at least smart enough not to argue with the tensai. "Fine."

"Now about that book you have . . ."

At Fuji's request, Echizen fished the thick tome out of his bag and dropped it into the other's waiting hands. Tachibana moved over to peer at it over Fuji's shoulder, only to find that it was completely unreadable.

"Echizen . . ."

"You've read this?" Fuji asked slowly.

"Not all of it. You you can borrow it if you want though, I think it has descriptions of your powers. You should look at it," Echizen said off-handedly.

"We can't seem to read this, so it looks like you'll have to help us," Fuji said slowly.

"Eh?" Echizen looked at them questioningly.

"Tachibana, is your house good for meeting to practice, or should we use mine?"

Tachibana quickly agreed that his house was fine, not wanting to find out what Fuji's family was like. And after a few minutes of a strange mix of pleading and threatening, Fuji somehow managed to get Echizen to agree to come to practice with them, and possibly even use his own powers as well.

Thankfully, the rest of the Seigaku team did not seem to figure into Fuji's plans – yet. But given the circumstances, Tachibana figured that it was probably only a matter of time before they'd _all_ be sitting in his living room.

------

"You wanted to talk to me, buchou?" Ryoma looked up at Tezuka, who had been waiting for him in the club meeting room after telling Echizen after practice that day that he wanted to talk to him. This time, Ryoma had simply agreed, rather than thinking up an excuse.

"Mmm." Tezuka motioned him into a chair, but Ryoma just leaned on it. "Echizen, have you noticed anything . . . strange lately?" he began awkwardly, and Ryoma resisted the urge to grin. After talking to Fuji, he already knew what Tezuka wanted to tell him. But it was weird seeing his buchou looking so uncomfortable, so he decided to make things quick.

"Strange? Not really. Unless you mean all those demon creatures I've been seeing around," he said off-handedly.

Tezuka looked at him sharply, surprise briefly evident on his features. "How much do you know?"

"Enough. I talked to Fuji-senpai after he saw me use my powers." He supposed that was true enough, though he'd let Tezuka take it to mean what he would.

"Ah," Tezuka managed.

"You know, we were going to practice using our powers today with Tachibana. He's got them too. Do you want to come?" Ryoma asked straight out. There was no way he was telling anyone else that he was the 'girl' they were looking for, at least not until he was forced to change again anyway and wouldn't be pestered into proving it. But the others may as well start getting used to their powers and each other, anyway.

Tezuka seemed to take a moment to compose himself before replying in his usual level tone, "Yes. It would be a good idea if we all practiced together, though I believe that most of the others have left already."

So Tezuka walked beside him as he headed out the door and towards the main gate to leave. "One moment," Tezuka told him, and Ryoma waited as he made a stop into the club's locker room. A moment later, he emerged with Oishi not far behind him. After a brief explanation of how he had been finishing cleaning up, the fukubuchou joined them as they started towards An's house.

------

". . . five minutes." A pause, as Echizen waited for a reply from whoever it was he was on his phone with; probably Tachibana. Seeing their youngest member on the phone with Fudomine's buchou struck Tezuka as somewhat surreal, reminding him further of the strangeness of the whole situation.

"No-- I'll tell them later . . . Yes, I will. And tell Fuji-senpai too, okay?" A few more words were exchanged, and then the conversation ended as Echizen tucked his phone away.

Echizen must have noticed him and Oishi watching him, and explained, "I had to tell them you were coming."

"Of course," Oishi said understandingly. "I hope we're not imposing." Echizen just shrugged.

When they arrived at Tachibana's house, the door was answered by a bright-eyed looking redhead, who Echizen briefly introduced as Tachibana's sister An.

"My brother and Fuji are out back," she told them, ushering them outside.

"Tezuka, Oishi," Tachibana greeted them in a neutral tone. Fuji, who stood beside him, smiled and gave them a small wave. Tachibana gave a little nod towards Echizen, who promptly went over to the other buchou and sat on the ground nearby. After a moment of rummaging in his bag, he pulled out a hefty looking old book.

"Good. You brought the book," Tachibana said approvingly. Tezuka gave him an inquiring look at this, and Tachibana briefly explained about the book Echizen had. Tezuka nodded, though he couldn't help but wonder how Echizen had come to have such a book.

"Aren't you going to practice with us?" Oishi asked Echizen curiously when the freshman showed no signs of getting up to join them.

"No."

"Echizen's going to read to us from the book," Fuji informed them cheerfully. "Apparently, it has some useful instructions."

After several spectacular displays and many more mishaps between the four of them, Tezuka began to better grasp the nature of their powers as Guardians. He, Oishi, and Tachibana all seemed to have the ability to generate pulses of energy and to create invisible barriers; neither of which Fuji had been able to do.

"Try doing what you did before, Fuji-senpai," Echizen suggested, and Fuji seemed to know what he was talking about.

"Ah, you mean like this?" A streak of blue fire exploded from Fuji's hand, chilling Tezuka as it went past. The blast impacted with a nearby bush, which promptly turned pale and disintegrated. "Oops."

"You should be careful with that thing, senpai." Echizen smirked. The freshman puzzled for a moment over the fact that their powers didn't vary much, muttering something about there being another type. But that was something they could only find out if they practiced with the others as well, he supposed.

Tezuka frowned slightly. "Echizen, you should practice as well," he reprimanded, noticing with interest that his words did not have their usual effect on the freshman, who didn't budge. "We need everyone together on this." But then, could it be possible that Echizen didn't _have_ any powers to practice with? If Tachibana was indeed a Guardian as well as Echizen, that would make ten, not nine.

Oishi nodded in agreement. "We should definitely all meet to talk about this and practice together. We might have to battle a real demon eventually, after all. And we still have to find that girl; she's got to be the tenshi that Inui told us about."

"Have either of you seen her?" Tezuka inquired.

"The girl you mentioned at the tournament? I haven't had any luck," Tachibana answered with a shrug. Echizen just shook his head, though Tezuka thought he looked rather uncomfortable.

"Its too bad she keeps running away from us. I had no idea I was so frightening," Fuji said lightly, an unusually playful smile on his face.

"You're not scary, Fuji-senpai." Echizen scowled, looking put out.

"I don't know," Tachibana said in an overly doubtful sounding voice. "He might be to an innocent young girl."

The glare Echizen sent the other buchou did not go unnoticed by Tezuka, though it seemed rather uncalled for. "I'm sure you'll have better luck next time you see her," Echizen huffed. "She's probably . . . " Echizen trailed off, his attention diverted to a nearby tree.

"What is it, Echizen?" Fuji asked, following Echizen's gaze. Tezuka also turned to look, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"There's a bird," he said distractedly, his eyes never leaving the tree.

"I don't see anything," Tachibana said, craning his neck.

"It was probably nothing." Echizen and tore his eyes away from the tree, looking uneasy.

But as Tezuka looked away he could have sworn he saw a flash of grey feathers . . . and he had the distinct feeling that there was more than one thing he had missed just then.

------

A slender bronzed arm stretched out, providing a perch for the sleek, feathered creature that alighted on it.

"And what do you have for me?" the blonde woman crooned, stroking its smooth silvery feathers. Its eyes glowed in response to her query, and she let her fingers rest lightly on its head as she listened to it. "So they're finally getting things together," she murmured. "It's about time."

The tenshi and the Guardians had been almost laughable up to this point, and even Adriel had seen no reason not to toy with them a little. Though now that they were actually figuring out their roles, the Guardians were no longer a threat that they could so easily dismiss. But Mara was far from worried; the Guardians, after all, were mere children, and untrained ones at that. All in all it was a wonderful combination, making them powerful enough to be interesting, but not so much that they were a real threat to their plans.

Her lips curved upwards as she thought of how delighted Orias would be when Adriel finally let him have his much-anticipated 'turn' taking down the next point. She almost, just almost, felt the slightest bit sorry for that little tenshi.

But not sorry enough to stop sending summonings after her, of course.

------

Chapter 10 Notes:

Regarding pronouns: Even when Fuji finds out that Ryoma is the tenshi, he still refers to him aloud by the female name and pronoun. Because Fuji is just evil like that. ;)


	12. Chapter 11

_Wow, this is SO much later than I'd planned on posting this, my apologies you guys! I will definitely update at least once more before Christmas! If you're still reading, thanks for your patience. :)_

------

**Chapter 11**

The timing had been good this time, at least; though he hadn't been able to avoid a nasty scratch on his forearm from the latest creature that had come after him that Tuesday morning. Still, he would have had to face his teammates in girl form eventually anyway, so it was just as well that it had happened on the day that they'd all planned to get together at An's house for practice. It was getting late, and they'd probably be arriving soon.

Closing the book he was reading, Ryoma reluctantly left the confines of An's room and padded downstairs to wait.

------

"Welcome! Come in," Tachibana An said pleasantly, showing them into the house.

"Hi, An-chan!" Momoshiro greeted her, causing the rest of the regulars to look at him strangely.

"Oh, you two know each other?" Kawamura inquired politely.

"Sure do," An answered with a grin. "We play tennis together with Ryoma-kun sometimes."

"How interesting," Inui commented. "Though not unexpected."

"Echizen couldn't make it today." Tezuka resisted the impulse to frown as he wondered where their freshman was. Echizen had been absent today, again, and he was beginning to find it rather worrying.

"My brother's waiting for you all out back."

As the eight of them stepped outside, Tezuka nearly stopped were he stood as he recognized who Tachibana was talking to at the far end of the yard. For an instant he thought he saw someone else, but despite her sportier clothing he quickly recognized her as the girl that he had seen before.

"Ochibi!" Before Tezuka or the others could stop him, Eiji bounded across the yard and tackled the girl in an enthusiastic hug from behind.

"Eiji! That's not--" Oishi started as he chased after his partner.

"We thought you were sick and . . ." Eiji trailed off, and he froze before suddenly jumping back off the girl; and, given where his hands had been, it wasn't too hard to guess why. "Unyaa! I'm sorry, kawaii-chan! I thought you were someone else!" Eiji said, looking horrified.

"I don't care about that," the girl said shortly. "And maybe I am someone else."

By now, they had all gone over to the far end of the yard, where Tachibana stood looking rather amused. "You shouldn't be so nice when boys put their hands on your chest, Ryo-chan," Fuji said pleasantly. "We'll have to do something about that."

"Stop calling me that," the girl said irritably. "You know my name, Fuji-senpai."

"Of course, Echizen-kun. But Ryo-chan sounds so much cuter, don't you think?"

"No."

Fuji just kept smiling, and there was a long moment of shocked silence before Eiji finally broke it.

"Iyaa! Ochibi's the tenshi!"

"Ah . . . that does explain the gender issue," Inui muttered.

"Hey, at least we don't have to worry about keeping it a secret anymore, right Echizen?" Momoshiro said with a grin, slinging his arm around the girl's – Echizen's?-- shoulder and ruffling her hair.

"Momo-senpai," she complained.

"Ah, I forgot, your hair's too long now," he said as he removed his arm, looking apologetically at the now-tousled long green hair. He received a put-out look in response.

"Sss. Impressive."

"What, Snake? That I was the first one to find out about Echizen?"

"No, that you managed to keep it a secret," Kaidoh replied flatly.

"Hey! I can keep a secret!"

"With your loud mouth? Fshh . . ."

"Statistically, it is more likely that Momoshiro would be unable to keep such a secret for an extended length of time, however . . ." Inui started recounting various examples as the two second-years continued to snip at each other.

"Are we going to get started already or not?"

She certainly had Echizen's attitude, at least.

Tezuka moved closer, and looked scrutinizingly at the small girl that stood in front of him. She blinked back in surprise, then stared right back at him. Just like Echizen would have. And though Echizen had much shorter hair and was perhaps not _quite_ this small, upon closer inspection the resemblance was obvious.

"You should have told us," Tezuka said quietly, only a hint of reproach in his voice.

"Yeah! You should tell your senpai things like this, so we can help," Eiji chimed in. "But, Ochibi, why'd you run away from us?"

"I didn't know you were Guardians," Echizen muttered. "And I didn't want you to recognize me like this."

"Oh, so that's why you were wearing a girl's uniform. You look so cute in it though!"

"It certainly is a good disguise," Fuji added, a chilling sense of delight in his voice. "Though I don't think its very appropriate."

"I'm sure Echizen doesn't want to wear a girl's uniform, Fuji," Oishi objected. "And what's wrong with it if he actually is a girl?"

"I think its a wonderful idea for Echizen to wear a girl's uniform. But we can't have one of our teammates walking around dressed as a Fudomine student, don't you agree? Besides, Seigaku's uniform is much cuter," Fuji said sagely, and Tezuka suppressed a sigh as he realized how _interesting_ Fuji found this.

"No way," Echizen said flatly.

"Well," Oishi began tentatively, "That certainly explains why you've been absent so much lately. Do you have someone to bring you your school work? I hope you aren't letting your studies suffer."

"That's not a problem," Echizen replied confidently. "I can't blow things up like you guys can, but I can leave my body. So I can still go to school, even if I'm not really there."

"Fascinating. Tell me, Echizen, have you noticed any other special abilities?" Inui asked, pen poised above one of his ever-present notebooks.

"Not sure."

"Don't forget about what you did when you confronted that white-haired demon," Fuji reminded him. "It was like an incantation or a spell, though I didn't understand it at all."

Echizen frowned. "I didn't do anything like that. I just told him to leave you alone."

"Maybe its the language that's in your book," Tachibana suggested, and Tezuka shot him a questioning look. "Speaking of which, Echizen, why don't you find the section on Guardian powers again and help everyone else figure out their powers as well."

Echizen nodded, and five pairs of eyes looked over at him expectantly. "Come on." He grabbed the book from the patio table and began paging through it. "Eiji-senpai, do you want to try first?"

Eiji, who was was practically vibrating with anticipation, literally jumped at the chance. Echizen, wisely, began giving him some suggestions for how to call on his powers only _after_ he had sent him to the other end of the yard. Which was quite fortunate, given the strength of the blast of heat that Eiji let loose.

"Wow! Did you see that, Oishi?" Eiji exclaimed in awe. "I wonder if I can make fire too, nya!"

Unfortunately for the Tachibana's rose bush, Eiji could indeed make fire.

After a few tries, Momoshiro and Kawamura discovered that they also had powers like Eiji's, while Kaidoh and Inui shared Fuji's power to generate cold energy and to freeze things. And with their unseen energy pulses and shielding, Tachibana, Oishi, and himself seemed to have powers unlike either of the other two types.

But Echizen's powers were another matter entirely. Besides astral projection, he seemed to be able to use a variety of spells or incantations, some by instinct and others that he found in the book. But Echizen's attacks were weak in comparison to theirs, which Tezuka found particularly worrying since he seemed to be the most likely target for demons.

Everyone practiced using their powers for awhile, though it was difficult to do so without destroying the Tachibana's yard, much to everyone's frustration. Momoshiro and Kaidoh were arguing again, and Oishi was trying to talk Eiji out of trying to see what would happen if he and Inui used their powers on each other. Meanwhile, Echizen was trying to escape from a very pleased looking Fuji, and failing miserably.

At least no one had given Kawamura a racket, yet.

It was definitely time to be done for the day, before anything else went up in flames. Exchanging a quick glance with Tachibana, whose patience was obviously wearing thin, Tezuka called out, "That's enough for today. Everyone go home."

As if by magic – though certainly not _their_ kind of magic – the Seigaku regulars and their manager stopped what they were doing and, after a few token protests, headed back inside with Tachibana An, chatting animatedly amongst themselves. All except for Echizen and Fuji, that is, who remained under the tree that Tachibana was leaning against. Which was just as well, as Tezuka needed to speak to Echizen anyway. Racking his brain for a good way to talk to the younger player about his safety, Tezuka started over towards them.

------

"Echizen," Tezuka began, looking rather uncomfortable. "About your living arrangements. I don't think its a good idea for you to stay at home like this. It may not be safe."

"I haven't been. I've been staying here with An," Echizen said bluntly.

"I see." Tezuka's eyebrows raised ever so slightly, and Fuji could tell that Tezuka was just as bothered as he was by the fact that Tachibana, somehow, had been the one that their freshman had gone to first for help. "Good." But of course, Tezuka was too restrained to say anything about it, leaving it to Fuji instead.

"You've been very kind to take our tenshi in, Tachibana. But now that we know, we can take care of it," Fuji said politely.

"It's no problem, really," Tachibana said unconcernedly. "Echizen's one of An's friends and would probably be over here sometimes anyway."

"But we just couldn't leave the responsibility all on you," Fuji persisted. "Right, Tezuka?"

"Mmm." Outwardly, Tezuka showed little sign that he cared either way, though Fuji recognized approval when he saw it. "We'll take turns among those of us whose parents will allow it."

"You can stay at my house tonight then, Ryo-chan." Fuji nearly beamed, pleased by the thought of having such an entertaining guest.

"Don't I get any say in this?" Echizen grumbled, pouting cutely.

"Is there something wrong with my house, Ryo-chan?"

"Ah . . . no, Fuji-senpai," Echizen finished hastily, though Fuji noticed him giving Tezuka a pleading look.

"Saa, it'll be just like a sleep over. And Yumiko will just love you, I'm sure."

Echizen, for some reason, didn't look happy. Though Fuji supposed that was understandable, given that he was being hunted by demons. But some quality time with Yumiko and her excellent fashion sense would surely provide a fun diversion.

------

Chapter 11 Notes:

Not sure abot Tachibana's characterization, but I couldn't think of any other way to write him so I suppose it'll have to do. ;)

Yumiko, in case you didn't know her name, is Fuji's older sister.


	13. Chapter 12

_My sincere thanks to those of you that reviewed! Your comments really encourage me. :) As promised, here is the next chapter, just in time for Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone:)_

**Chapter 12**

The sun was just peeking over the horizon, bathing the city skyline in a warm golden glow. It was early still, on a Friday, and according to the sign at the main entrance Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium was not due to open until nine. And it wasn't even eight yet. Ryoma wasn't sure what he could do to occupy himself for more than an hour, and, thinking about it further, wasn't even sure why he was here in the first place. Though he'd left his house for school much earlier than usual, he hadn't really intended to come here. But Ryoma just couldn't get the images from the dream he'd the night before out of his mind, and had impulsively took the turn that led him to the train station instead of to school.

And now here he was, standing in front of the very structure he'd seen destroyed in his dream: the fourth point. It had only been a dream . . . but then, the other dreams he'd had about the previous points being destroyed had come true. The second and third points he had seen destroyed just as they'd been in his dreams, and he was fairly sure that that first strange dream he'd had had been of the first point's demise. But even though he'd known each time, he hadn't been able to keep it from happening, and realistically he knew that he wouldn't be able to stop any demon that tried to destroy this building either.

For this reason, Ryoma also knew that he should tell the others. Because maybe, despite their terrible lack of coordination, they could keep the fourth point from being destroyed. But since he hadn't told anyone about his last dream of the third point's destruction--or even mentioned his dreams to them at all--he didn't know how to tell them about the fourth point's destruction now. And judging by the calm, quiet atmosphere around the gymnasium, he didn't think he'd find any signs of demons being here.

He probably should have just gone to school.

After wandering aimlessly around the the outside of the huge facilities for awhile, Ryoma had nearly convinced himself to leave. But just as he circled around the back of the main arena, he caught sight of a brief flash of red through one of the building's many windows. It wasn't the woman or the white-haired demon, at least, but he didn't think it had been any of the staff either.

As Ryoma considered what it could have been, a nearby door opened and a man in a dull green jumper pushing a cart slowly came out. On the spur of the moment, he grabbed an eraser from his school bag and expertly threw it towards the door. It wedged itself firmly between the door jam and the door on the floor, keeping the door from shutting all the way. After the unobservant janitor was safely out of sight, Ryoma took a quick look around and then slipped inside the main arena building.

Ryoma padded quietly through the empty hallways, past the deserted ticket booths and food stands, going up the twisting stairways in the general direction that he'd seen that flash of red move towards. Whatever it had been, Ryoma figured it was probably nothing more dangerous than one of those smaller creatures, since in his dream it had been afternoon when this building had been destroyed. But if there _was_ something here now that he could see, he could go back and tell his teammates about it, which would be much more believable than just a dream.

He soon found himself at the entrance the arena's central amphitheater, and Ryoma headed up and cautiously looked inside. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the massive field . . . but his instincts were suddenly, loudly, screaming at him that there was something there that he wasn't seeing. Something dangerous. Slightly spooked, Ryoma turned and walked quickly out of the amphitheater and back down the stairs in the direction that he had come. He went down into the sub-levels for a quick look around, but found nothing but weight machines and treadmills. Satisfied that he'd looked around enough, Ryoma started back up the stairs, only to be assaulted by that same sense of impending danger.

He looked up the staircase, and concluded that he _really _should have just gone to school.

A man, with a muscular frame and crimson hair, was leaning against the rail, right by the door that led back to the ground floor exit. Murky black eyes slowly turned downwards, and Ryoma froze as they met his.

"Finally coming up now, little one?" The man's voice was low and velvety, though lacking any normal inflection. "Or do you want to play later?"

Ryoma certainly didn't want to 'play' now, or ever for that matter. He whirled around and dashed back down the stairs and _away_ from the demon, who somehow seemed more malicious than the other two had. He let out a small gasp as he felt a hand on his shoulder, jerking him to a stop, and he felt a cool breath on his cheek as the demon leaned close.

"You should have said something if you wanted to play later," the demon said silkily, a dangerous undertone to his voice. "It's so awfully rude to run away like that."

Desperately, Ryoma flung the first spell he could think of at the demon in an effort to get away. He was not at all happy to be a girl again, but it was worth it to see the demon flung away from him in a shower of sparks. Ryoma ran.

But his incantation had not been strong enough. A burst of energy whizzed past Ryoma's head, impacting with a piece of railing and sending it flying into the wall. Ryoma ducked his head and ran down the stairs faster, though as he burst through another door he found himself dead-ended at the lowest level in the storage room.

And the demon was still coming closer, but not moving nearly as fast as he had been before. And then it suddenly occurred to Ryoma that the demon was just _playing_ with him. Annoyed at being so easily dismissed, Ryoma took an offensive stance a few meters away from the door, and let loose a barrage of the most destructive spells he knew at the first sign of movement in the stairwell. A satisfied smirk settled on his face as he heard them impact, accompanied by a faint grunt. And then nothing

But had it been enough? Cautiously, Ryoma began to step forward, but before he knew what was happening he felt, but didn't see, something slam into him with enough force to send him flying backwards into a tall metal shelf. He hit it, hard, and slumped bonelessly to the floor. His head ached, and as the room seemed to get darker he caught sight of a hazy figure in the doorway.

The demon.

"You know, I think you're right. We really should do this later; I do have a building to destroy now, after all. Though I wouldn't want you to run away again . . . so I'll just have to make sure you stay here. I promise I won't let you be killed when I bring the building down, though. That wouldn't be fun at all." The demon gave a flick of his hand, and the last thing Ryoma saw before he passed out was the stairwell, caving in on itself.

------

Tezuka rarely had lunch with anyone other than Oishi or Fuji, and the latter only on occasion. But lately, it seemed, he had been spending more time with his fellow teammates.

"Fujiko! You don't put wasabi on _that_!" Tezuka glanced over to see Eiji looking at Fuji's lunch box in horror.

"Ah, but it really tastes good."

Today, for instance, he had somehow wound up sitting with nearly half the team. Inui had showed up with Oishi, and Fuji had just seemed to appear on the grass beside him when he hadn't been paying attention. Eiji had come following after the tensai, and Tezuka suspected that the bouncy redhead just didn't want to be left out of anything.

"You know, I've been thinking," Fuji began, and Tezuka's gaze slid over to him. "We really should be more proactive."

Tezuka raised an eyebrow slightly in inquiry.

"As Guardians we're supposed to keep five points from falling, but so far, we know at least two that have already," Fuji pointed out.

"I agree with Fuji, and have been meaning to bring up the matter as well," Inui interjected. "In order to successfully preserve the remaining points, I believe that we need to actively seek them out to protect them from the demons that are working to resurrect their lord."

"That sounds reasonable." Tezuka nodded. "Do you have any suggestions?"

A pause. "I'm afraid not," Inui admitted.

"Maybe we should ask Ochibi!" Eiji piped up.

"Hm. It is strange that Echizen was at the last two sites before they went down," Fuji said thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing.

"And highly improbable," Inui added.

"I'll see if he knows anything." Echizen hadn't even told them about his male-to-female transformation, so Tezuka didn't doubt that there could be more that he wasn't telling them. Echizen was fairly closed-off by nature, and did not seem inclined to tell his 'Guardians' any more than what they specifically asked. But was it a matter of trust, or something else?

"Echizen is in class two, though often eats lunch in the cafeteria or with Momoshiro."

Tezuka knew that already, but gave Inui a small nod of thanks as he stood to go find the freshman. It just didn't feel like a good idea to wait.

"But, Ochibi's not here today," Eiji said, causing Tezuka to stop. "He was fine yesterday though . . . "

Realization weighed heavily on Tezuka. "I don't think Echizen is sick."

The others had apparently reached the same conclusion as he had, if the sudden yet brief lack of conversation was any indication.

"You know, I think we really should work on Echizen's communication skills." Fuji broke the silence, his voice deceptively light. He and Inui exchanged a glance, and Tezuka was sure that he was missing some level of their communication.

But then . . . he probably didn't want to know.

------

Consciousness returned to him slowly, and Ryoma wasn't sure how long he was awake before he realized that it was just very, very dark. So dark, in fact, that he couldn't even see silhouettes.

And he _hurt, _and not just from being slammed into a wall.

Slowly pulling himself into a sitting position, Ryoma raised a hand and put his fingers into the correct positions before murmuring a simple incantation. His voice sounded scratchy and faint, and not at all like it should have, but it still had the desired effect as a soft white light flared up on the tips of his fingers. It cast a soft glow around the room, revealing a pile of rubble where the door had been and several collapsed shelves and light fixtures. One of which was partly on his lower leg, which certainly explained the pain. Wincing, Ryoma tried to wriggle out from under it, but with no success. As he lay back for a moment, he caught sight of his school bag, which, miraculously, had not been crushed.

And his phone was in there. Ryoma reached over to grab it, and stretched as far as he could when his fingers failed to snare it. But it was just out of his reach. Though after several minutes of pushing, pulling, and wiggling, Ryoma managed to get the rubble off of his leg.

He drew in a sharp gasp as he scooted over to his bag, and willed himself to push the pain away. He was sure it wasn't broken, but his leg was bloody enough that he didn't think he'd be walking on it right away. After drawing in a few shaky breaths, Ryoma pulled his phone out of his bag and opened it. Whether he liked it or not, he definitely needed help, and his teammates were the only ones who had a chance of saving this point now. His first thought was to call Tezuka, since surely he could get everyone organized like he always did.

But Tezuka didn't answer his phone, and Ryoma wondered if maybe he was in class. And, given the time, it was very possible that they were _all_ in class. Ryoma bit his lip. He didn't want to make a nuisance of himself by calling them during class, but this was really important. The fourth point was going down, and soon. Not for the first time that day, Ryoma wished that his own powers were stronger, like the others'.

He called Oishi next, who had apparently not turned on his phone that day. And all he got was voice mail when he called Momo. And, to make matters worse, his own phone's battery was dying. He had enough power left for one more call, but probably not two, which could be very bad if the person he called next didn't pick up.

So who could he count on to answer?

-----

"Hey, Fuji!" Eiji waved a hand in front of his face as Fuji sat at his desk gazing out the window. "What's so interesting out there?"

"Nothing," Fuji said with a smile. "I'm just looking forward to the end of the day." There was one more class left, and he was also pondering just how annoyed Tezuka would be with him if he didn't show up for tennis practice that afternoon. Fuji had a strong impulse to go check on Echizen, and didn't really feel like resisting it for that much longer. To his surprise, he found himself rather worried about his young teammate – and Fuji did not like being worried.

Eiji looked at him knowingly. "Nya, me too! We should go see what Ochibi's doing."

As he was about to reply, Fuji felt a slight vibration in his pocket. Taking out his phone, he flipped it open.

"Hello?"

There was a slight pause, and then the hesitant voice of a young girl.

" _. . . Fuji-senpai? It's Echizen."_

"How nice to have you call me," Fuji replied pleasantly, as in truth people rarely called him when he gave them his number. But he doubted that this was a social call. "Is something wrong? You've changed again."

"_Mm. Sorry to bother you, but I thought you'd have your phone on. The fourth point's going to come down really soon. I'm there, but I can't stop it."_

Fuji stiffened, now fully alert and slightly alarmed. And shouldn't it have been the third point? "Why not, and where are you?" he asked tersely.

"_Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. He's in the main arena, I think he's concentrating his energy somewhere in the stadium. But I can't stop him, I'm stuck below. You've got to get the others and come. I messaged everyone, but I don't have enough battery left to make more calls."_

"He?"

"_The demon! Its already started, you have to hurry if you're going to make it in time to stop him."_

Fuji did not miss the strained quality of the freshman's voice. "We'll come as soon as we can," he said calmly. "Where are you exactly?And are you all right?"

"_The lowest sublevel, directly under the stadium," _came the reluctant reply. _"Its caved in. My phone's dying now. I've got to go, Fuji-senpai."_

The call ended with a click, and Fuji just stared down at the phone in his hand for a moment in silent thought. Well, as silent as it could be with Eiji nearly hopping at his side.

"Is Ochibi in trouble?" Eiji asked anxiously, and rather too loudly.

"Mm." Fuji gave a nearly imperceptible nod, and began putting his books in his bag. "We have to go."

"Eh? But, class is starting in a minute! It must be important, ne?"

"I'll tell you on the way."

Obediently, Eiji grabbed his bag and followed Fuji out of the classroom and through the halls. "Fuji, where are we going?"

"To get the other Guardians, of course. The fourth point is going down," Fuji replied absently, tuning out Eiji's exclamations as he considered how to undertake the initial challenge that had been set before him.

"Saa, Eiji, how would you like to help me get everyone out of class?"

------

Chapter 12 Notes:

Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium does actually exist, though I'm not sure of its actual location in relation to the other locations in this story. It is a very large public facility that consists of several different structures including a main arena, a sub-arena, and a smaller building with a pool, and includes sub-levels as well. I've never been there though, so how I describe the layout is mostly speculation!


	14. Chapter 13

_Wow. It has been waaay too long since I updated this, especially considering that it was finished ages ago! I've been very busy with college, and besides that am somewhat of a scatterbrain (not a good combination, really!). So this story just kept slipping my mind! My sincere apologies to any readers that still remain and I thank you for your patience. All of your reviews have meant a lot to me. :)_

_And I would also like to give a HUGE thank you to those of you that sent in reviews even after so long without an update. Those reviews were very appreciated and each one was a reminder to update! Unfortunately it just took a lot of reminders, due to my being such a scatterbrain. But I FINALLY remembered! XD_

_Enough chatter . . . please enjoy the next chapter! _

**Chapter 13**

"Was that really necessary?" Tezuka asked disapprovingly.

"Saa, it worked, didn't it?" Fuji countered.

"Ah, I'll never be able to look Kuge-sensei in the eye again," Momoshiro said mournfully.

Oishi just sighed. "Well, at least we all got out of class."

The eight of them had just managed to catch the bus to Tokyo Memorial Gymnasium, which Fuji had told them was the fourth point and was about to be destroyed. Tezuka very much regretted turning his phone off that day, as he would have liked to have heard about it first hand rather than from the ever-evasive Fuji. But even if the details where sketchy, he knew enough. There was a demon about to destroy the fourth point, and they had to stop it. And Echizen was there too, apparently 'stuck' somewhere. Meaning, probably, that he needed help.

As they stepped off of the bus in front of the gymnasium, it was immediately evident that there was some form of energy emanating from the main arena, which was strangely deserted. Tezuka's gaze fixed on it, and he saw his teammates turn instinctively towards it as well. Exchanging uneasy glances amongst themselves, they went over to it. Its doors opened easily for them, allowing them entry.

"Even though there aren't any events this place is open today, but there's no one anywhere around here," Eiji said in a hushed voice.

"The demonic aura here is very strong. It is likely that even ordinary people may be able to sense it on some subconscious level, causing them to stay away," Inui theorized.

"I guess they've got more sense than we do then," Kaidoh grunted.

"Who needs common sense when you've got magic?" Momoshiro said jokingly, though the humor was obviously strained.

Tezuka stopped and faced the others. "The demon should be in the central most stadium, which is where the energy seems to be coming from. Most of us should go there to defeat the demon, though we need to find Echizen as well," Tezuka said authoritatively, radiating a calm that he did not wholly feel. Though he may have been the captain of the tennis team, he had no more experience with demons and magic powers than any of them did and was reluctant to take the lead. But _someone_ needed to.

"I'll go find Echizen, buchou," Momoshiro volunteered, unsurprisingly.

"And I'll go with him!" Eiji offered with a grin.

Suddenly, the whole building seemed to quiver, and the demonic energy felt as though it jumped around them.

"Oh, better hurry!" Eiji grabbed Momoshiro and took off towards the stairs going down. "Good luck, guys, do your best!"

"I hope Eiji remembers where they're going," Fuji commented.

"He'd better."

With Tezuka and Fuji in the lead, the tennis players-turned-Guardians quickly but cautiously made their way up to the expansive stadium. He looked all around the field and the stands with a careful eye, though was disconcerted to see that there was nothing that appeared to be out of the ordinary.

"I don't see anything," Kawamura said hesitantly.

"But there is a demon here somewhere," Tezuka reminded them.

"Maybe its afraid of us?" Oishi ventured.

"Or it could be just toying with us," Fuji said sharply.

"Oh you are a bright one, aren't you?" The voice, both smooth and mocking, seemed to come from nowhere and all around them at the same time. A small space near the opposite entrance shimmered strangely, and a tall man with blood red hair flickered into existence_ A demon._ "But you're hardly my first choice for entertainment."

"The feeling is mutual." Fuji said icily, his eyes narrowed and slitted open.

Tezuka tensed and held his hands ready, and saw the others do the same out of the corner of his eye. It happened so fast that he wasn't quite sure who threw the first blow at the demon, though Fuji was his first guess. The wave of fiery blue hit the demon squarely in the shoulder, sending him flying back several meters. Before the demon could even get up, more icy blasts went flying at him from not only Fuji, but from Inui and Kaidoh as well. The demon flew back even farther, and hit the wall with an audible thud.

Dust and cold vapor rose up from the impact, obscuring their view. But nothing moved.

Tezuka exchanged a look with Fuji, but before either of them could suggest what to do next a head of crimson hair became visible as the cloud cleared. Looking only slightly ruffled, the demon stood with a feline grace and gave them a smirk.

"This is not good," Inui said dispassionately.

"That is one strong demon." Kaidoh glared at it.

"The name's Orias, children; do remember that." Almost lazily, he took a step forward, and was immediately met with a shower of icy fire, which was joined by Tezuka and Oishi's unseen energy pulses and a smattering of fireballs from Kawamura. The demon – Orias – flinched, but only for a moment before a red-tinted shield formed around him. It radiated an essence of heat, and the icy blasts, rather than going through it, simply dissolved.

The smirk returned. With a wave of his hand, Orias sent Inui, Kaidoh, and Fuji flying backwards and into the stairwell, which he then collapsed with another wave. "So boring," he said with a sigh. "And not even cute. Why couldn't you have been magical _girls_?"

Tezuka and Oishi exchanged a grim look, both worried for their teammates and by the fact only they and Kawamura were now left to fight the demon. Tezuka met both of their eyes and gave a small nod, and the three of them threw all they had at the demon. His and Oishi's powers, he noticed, seemed to have a synergistic effect with Kawamura's, and the demon stumbled back slightly as he was hit by their combined blasts.

But it was not near enough. Kawamura's fire lacked the intensity that he had seen in Eiji's and Momoshiro's, and Tezuka belatedly wished that someone had thought to bring Kawamura a racket. Though it didn't seem to matter as another shield appeared around the demon, this one a pale blue.

"Oh no, I'm sorry you guys!" Kawamura apologized as his attacks were rendered useless by the frigid cold shield.

"Go check on the others!" Oishi called out, and Kawamura gave a nod before running off.

And now they were two.

Determinedly, Tezuka concentrated his pulses of energy with Oishi's at the demon's head and chest. The demon grimaced momentarily, but then began forming a ball of energy in his hands. In one smooth motion he threw it up in the air, and sharp bolts of light began to rain down on them from it. Tezuka had no choice but to divert his power from the offensive to the defensive as he formed a much-needed shield around himself and Oishi.

"Thanks," Oishi gritted out, still sending pulses of energy towards the demon. "What now?" It was clear that Oishi's efforts were doing little more than annoying the demon, at this point.

"Well, I'd suggest that you run." Orias flashed them a feral grin, then sent a tiny flicker of red light into the ball of energy that hovered above them. The ball stopped sending out bolts, but after a moment it began expanding rapidly. "Between taking down this point and playing with that little tenshi of yours, I think I have enough to keep me busy; but I'm sure I can fit you in if you'd care to stick around." The energy ball continued its expansion, and was now the size of a small house.

Tezuka and Oishi didn't need to exchange more than a glance before they retreated, heading back towards where their teammates had been thrown. There, Kawamura was desperately pulling away rubble from the stairwell's entrance, and Tezuka was relieved to head sounds from the other side indicating that they were doing the same. He and Oishi joined in, using carefully controlled pulses of energy to help move the rubble away. Oishi looked anxiously over his shoulder as the edges of the energy ball closed in on them.

"Almost there!" Kawamura proclaimed, and sure enough, Tezuka saw a hand break through from the other side. Within a few seconds they managed to get through, and were met inside the stairwell by Fuji, Inui, and Kaidoh, all of who looked, thankfully, unharmed.

"We have to leave," Tezuka told them, and though he caught some questioning looks they followed him as he moved quickly down the stairs. Stopping only to grab their bags from the floor on the way out, the six of them nearly ran out one of the arena's doors as the structure began to rumble ominously.

"We couldn't stop him," Oishi said regretfully, as they all turned to look back at the now-crumbling building from a relatively safe distance. "This point is going down."

And three of their teammates were still unaccounted for. Fuji voiced his concern.

"If they aren't out by now . . ."

It wasn't a thought that Fuji needed to finish.

"Hey," Kaidoh said, jerking his head slightly towards the street. "Look who's here."

Tezuka looked over and saw Tachibana approaching them, looking vaguely put out. "I see I'm too late," he said, frowning slightly. "This was one of the points, I assume. Is there a reason no one called me?"

Tezuka frowned as well; in their rush to get here, he hadn't considered Tachibana at all. And obviously, the others hadn't either

"Ah, I'm afraid not" Fuji replied in a subdued voice. "You got the text message from Echizen, though?"

"Yes." Tachibana very nearly glowered in annoyance, and Tezuka knew that they owed him an apology for slighting him even though they had all suffered for his absence.

---

"Slow down, Momo-senpai," Ryoma said irritably as he tried to keep up with the older boy's pace as they fled the rapidly deteriorating arena. His leg hurt too much to put much weight on it, so he was reluctantly using Momo as a crutch. But Momo was too tall to be of much help, and he was walking much too fast for Ryoma anyway.

"Sorry, Echizen," Momo said apologetically, but didn't slow down. "But we've got to hurry. This place is going to collapse any minute now!"

"I hope the others got out too," Eiji said worriedly as he jogged along beside them.

Why Eiji and Momo had been the ones to come get him, of all the Guardians, Ryoma had no clue. Tezuka, Oishi, or Tachibana could have probably used their powers to help remove the rubble; and Fuji, Inui, or Kaidoh's powers would have at least been less dangerous in close quarters. Not to mention that Momo and Eiji weren't exactly the most calm and analytical thinkers out there. After several ill-conceived attempts to _melt_ the rubble, the pair had finally decided to do what Ryoma had been doing from the start; namely, digging. Needless to say, it had been a slow process, and they had barely made it out before the entire underground stairwell had begun to collapse on them.

They finally made it to ground level, stairs crumbling behind them, and Ryoma found himself being lifted off the ground by the strong arm around his waist as Momo broke into a run for the door, with Eiji alongside them. And it was not a moment too soon. Scant moments after they practically flew out the door, the structure gave an ominous rumble and then began to implode in a massive cloud of dust and debris. A bright red light could be seen coming from the stadium.

Ryoma's eyes widened slightly as he watched from over Momo's shoulder . . . but wait, when had he agreed to let Momo _carry _him? And Momo was still running, and it didn't look like he was thinking of putting him down anytime soon.

"Hey," Ryoma began, tapping lightly on the junior's shoulder. "Let me down." But Momo, unfortunately, was distracted.

---

"Look, there's the others!" Eiji cried excitedly.

"There they are," Oishi said relievedly as three familiar figures came darting around a corner and into view, just moments after the main arena began to fall in earnest.

Tezuka could make out Eiji waving at them wildly, but he and Momoshiro didn't stop running towards them. In Momoshiro's arms Tezuka saw Echizen, who was futilely tugging at the other's shoulder. The team's powerhouse didn't seemed to notice, and just kept on going until he and Eiji finally stopped in front of them.

"We were worried about you guys," Kawamura said earnestly, offering a small smile.

"Is everyone okay?" Tezuka asked, directing his question at the newly arrived trio. But said trio didn't seem to be paying attention to him for once, with Eiji clinging to Oishi and Echizen trying to wriggle his way out of the oblivious junior's arms.

"Momo-senpai," he complained, and Momoshiro looked down at him in surprise.

"Eh? Fine, here you go." He carefully set Echizen down, but kept one arm loosely around the freshman's waist. "Don't be careless and put too much weight on it though," he admonished. Tezuka looked at their smallest member critically, and immediately honed in on the freshman's bloodied right leg.

"Ochibi got stuck under some rubble," Eiji supplied, seeing where Tezuka was looking. "The stairwell at the bottom was caved in, so we had to dig him out!"

Inui looked at Eiji curiously. "Hmm. The arena did not begin to collapse until after we arrived, so it is quite odd that that particular area was collapsed earlier."

"Then it was probably done on purpose," Fuji said deliberately, then turned his gaze on Echizen. "Do you have any ideas, Ryo-chan?"

Echizen did not looked happy to be addressed in such a way by Fuji, but replied, "It was Orias. He did it to trap me down there."

"'Ch. Sadist." Kaidoh crossed his arms and looked to the side.

"Orias?" Tachibana questioned.

"The demon," Tezuka informed him.

"What a bastard! That's a terrible way to try and kill someone," Momoshiro said fiercely, drawing Echizen a little closer.

"He wasn't trying to kill me. He was just making sure I couldn't leave." Echizen corrected, having apparently given up on escaping from Momoshiro.

At this, Tezuka was struck by something that Orias had said before they'd escaped, and he felt his stomach clench. The thought of Orias _playing_ with any living being was unsettling, and he didn't even want to think about what a demon like that would do to an undeniably cute, female tenshi, however a reluctant of one.

"Echizen, did he . . . do anything to you?" Tezuka asked, his voice slightly strained. But though it was a rather uncomfortable question, it really did need to be asked.

But his worries seemed to be unfounded, as Echizen just blinked back at him with his usual unbothered expression. "Not really."

"Your leg looks bad though," Oishi said worriedly, and bent down to take a closer look.

"You need to have that looked at," Tezuka said, in a tone that brooked no arguments.

"I'll ask my uncle to stitch it up for you," Oishi offered. "We can stop by the hospital on the way home."

Echizen shifted awkwardly and looked down at the ground.

"You're staying with me," Tezuka told the freshman, not unkindly. Echizen just nodded in response.

Of all the Seigaku members, only he and Fuji were able to have a female overnight guest. Fuji's parents allowed it so long as his older sister agreed to look after them, which Fuji had said she was happy to do. As for Tezuka, though he hadn't ever asked his family about it, they had always trusted him and given him ample leeway when it came to his fairly limited social life. And when he had mentioned his concerns about his family accepting a female houseguest to Tachibana, the other boy had brushed them off and hinted that he could use Echizen himself to take care of any problems they might have. Tezuka wasn't quite sure what he'd meant, but he was sure that his strict yet kind grandfather wouldn't mind such a small, quiet houseguest.

And Echizen was looking rather worn out. Of all their houses, Tezuka was reasonably certain that his was the quietest; and besides that, he was the only one of the three who hadn't taken Echizen home with him yet.

The ten of them stood in uncertain silence for a moment after that, before Fuji finally said what Tezuka was sure they were all thinking.

"Well, that was a disaster, wasn't it?" His voice was annoyingly cheerful, but only to the untrained ear. Fuji was definitely displeased, and in a big way.

"Mm." Tezuka agreed. "We'll have to do better next time and use what we learned this time. This isn't the place to discuss strategy though."

"Tezuka is correct; I estimate it will be approximately one and a half minutes before the authorities arrive," Inui told them.

Strategy would have to wait.

---

Chapter 13 Notes:

Fight scenes are hard to write.

That is all.

_Thanks for reading! _


	15. Chapter 14

_Oh, dear. I could have sworn I had finished posting this story, but it seems I did not! It has been finished and sitting in a file on my PC all this time. ^^; My sincere apologies for keeping you hanging for so long – that is, if anyone is even reading this? XD Anyhow, onto the chapter and I hope you enjoy! _

**Chapter 14**

"Good night, dear, let us know if you need anything." Tezuka's mother smiled at him as she slid the door to the spare bedroom that Ryoma was staying in shut.

He wasted no time in stripping off his clothes, and hurriedly pulled on the large blue pajama top that Tezuka had lent him, much to Ryoma's embarrassment. He let out a small sigh as he flopped down on the futon, relieved to finally be alone to get some sleep. Tezuka's family was nice enough, he supposed, and certainly calmer than Fuji's or even An's. Tezuka's father was out of town, and Ryoma hadn't seen much of his grandfather, who seemed more interested in reading the weeklies than in checking out their visitor.

But his mother had been another matter entirely. She kept _looking_ at him, and had tried to feed him everything from rice and fish to red bean cakes and ice cream. Normally he wouldn't have minded this, but after the day's events he didn't have much of an appetite. His head ached, his leg throbbed, and he was tired; sleep was much more appealing than food.

And finally he was left alone; the house was quiet, and the bedding was soft. But though Ryoma fell asleep in moments, he still didn't get the peace he wanted.

_Geta-glad feet scurried across the courtyard, barely visible in the light of the new moon. Robed figures practically flew under the archway and through the doors, as frightened voices urged them on. _

_A faint light began to gleam from inside the building. It shot up, bursting though the roof, and then rebounded back down upon the earth._

_'Sensoji Temple'_, _proclaimed the neatly scripted sign at the door._

_The words turned to dust, leaving only a sickly yellow aura in their wake. _

_Midnight black eyes turned away, highlighting a small, smug smile._

_And then he was gone, just like the temple . . . _

Ryoma blinked as he woke up, still tired and half asleep but all the same unnerved by the dream. It must have been the fifth point that he'd seen the destruction of, though he wondered why he had dreamed of it so soon. He had seen the other points go down in his dreams days or even weeks apart from each other, so this was unexpected. He hoped that the fifth point wouldn't be going down too soon, since they _really_ needed to practice working with their powers together.

But he had already made the mistake of overestimating how much time they had with the fourth point. This time, he would make sure.

Sensoji Temple . . . the name sounded familiar, and after a moment's thought Ryoma remembered that he'd gone there for New Year's once. It was in Tokyo, not too far away, but he could hardly go running over there to check it in the middle of the night and with a cut up leg.

The corner of Ryoma's mouth turned up slightly as he had a much, much better idea. Maybe his weird abilities as a 'tenshi' could finally be useful for a change. Closing his eyes again, Ryoma allowed himself to approach the brink of sleep, and then slipped out of his body as he had done before, this time concentrating on his memory of Sensoji Temple.

The haze around his memory cleared, and Ryoma found himself – or his spirit, he supposed -- at the Temple's main entrance. There, he walked silently across the darkened courtyard.

He looked in each building for signs of demons, easily slipping in and out of each one. Everything was quiet and dark, with no signs of movement.

But Ryoma's instincts were very nearly screaming at him. Something was wrong here . . . where were the people? Surely, there should have been someone in the dormitory . . .

He ran to the pagoda (1) then, with such speed that he alighted from the ground. As he approached it a faint glow became visible, though from what he sensed inside he knew that it wasn't from any lamp or candle.

Cautiously, he peered inside.

Long, lean legs cast a shadow on the wooden floor, and a pair of coal-black eyes began to turn towards him--

Ryoma jerked himself back to his body with a speed he didn't know he had, and bolted upright with a small gasp. He didn't think that even demons could see his astral body, but he really had no way of knowing and didn't want to find out just then. That had definitely been Orias he had seen in the pagoda, and he'd caught sight of that blonde as well who was undoubtedly another demon.

Somehow, Ryoma didn't think that they were there to pay their respects. Sensoji Temple had to be the fifth site – and would surely be destroyed by the pair of demons, if they weren't stopped soon.

So as much as he wanted to go back to sleep, Ryoma was not about to make the same mistake twice by waiting to tell someone. He could only hope that they would listen.

Though the prospect of waking up his buchou in the middle of the night with such a wild story was not a pleasant one, to say the least. He just hoped he could find Tezuka's room without waking up anyone else.

oOoOoOo

"Buchou."

There it was again.

Tezuka forced his eyes open and, without moving, looked blearily at the clock on his nightstand. It was 1:52 am; hardly time to get up.

He felt the light touch of a hand on his shoulder. "Buchou, wake up."

As Tezuka came awake, he suddenly registered that it was Echizen that was trying to wake him up. He sat up, and Echizen, who was leaning on his bed beside him, handed him his glasses from his nightstand.

"What is it?" Tezuka asked quietly as he put them on, turning to look at the freshman inquiringly.

"I had a dream," Echizen said, looking unusually hesitant.

"A nightmare?" Tezuka raised an eyebrow slightly. Echizen didn't seem like the type to go to anyone when he had a bad dream; but then, maybe the dreams of a tenshi were different.

Echizen shook his head, his long hair swishing around his shoulders. "I wouldn't call it that. But it wasn't good. Remember how I knew about the other points going down?" Tezuka nodded. "I dreamed about them being destroyed. And I had another dream like that just now."

A feeling of dread began to well up in him. "You saw the next point being destroyed," Tezuka stated. "So soon?"

"Its the last one, Sensoji Temple. And I went there to see, out of body. Orias and another demon are already there, right now." A hint of urgency crept into the younger boy's voice, made all the more anxious sounding by its higher, feminine tones.

Tezuka gave a slight nod. He didn't bother asking if Echizen was certain – he wouldn't have woken him up like this if he wasn't. Getting out of bed, Tezuka went over to his bag and rustled around for his cell phone. "I'm going to call the others. We need to get there as soon as we can." Tezuka eyed Echizen as he picked a purple shirt out of his drawer, debating whether or not he should bring the boy, or rather, girl, with him. On one hand, Echizen was injured, and his powers didn't seem like they'd be very useful in a battle. But if he'd learned one thing from their failure at the fourth point, it was that they should work as a team. And none of them really knew the extent of Echizen's powers, so he supposed it would be foolish to leave him behind.

"Go get dressed." Echizen nodded and limped out of the room with obvious difficulty. Tezuka looked after the retreating figure for a long moment, and then pulled his clothes on before going to collect his guest from the spare room.

"Quiet until we're outside." Tezuka told him in a low voice, then handed Echizen his phone and bag. "Call the others on the way. Don't forget Tachibana." Echizen looked up at him and gave a quick nod.

After silently convincing Echizen to let him carry him again, Tezuka made his way out of the house as quietly as he could. Thankfully, his grandfather slept heavily, and his mother, who was a terribly light sleeper, wore earplugs. It would have been difficult to sneak out if his father had been home, though, and Tezuka could only hope that the other Guardians could get out of their houses as well.

oOoOoOo

"Ow! Oishi, your head is too hard!"

"Eiji, try not to follow so close."

"Fssh. Quit stepping on my heels, idiot."

"Well why don't you--"

"Quiet!"

A single word from Tezuka was all it usually took to get the others to listen, and this time was no exception. The ten of them continued making their way through the dark halls of the temple in relative silence, save for the thumping of feet, though for a group of highly trained athletes they weren't very quiet. But Echizen had said that the two demons had been in the pagoda, so it was unlikely that they'd run into anything troublesome in the other buildings. Still, they'd decided to check them out first to avoid any nasty surprises.

"They probably know we're here anyway," Echizen broke the silence. "They can sense us too you know."

"'Too'?" Oishi repeated questioningly.

"Maybe we'll throw them off by wandering around first," Kawamura said optimistically.

"Either that or they'll think we got lost," Tachibana put in, rather unhelpfully.

"They can't tell _exactly_ where we are," Echizen said, sounding almost exasperated.

"Good! We don't want them to think we don't know what . . . eh?" Eiji trailed off, and bent down to take something off of the bottom of his shoe. "What's this?"

Fuji squinted in the darkness, but couldn't make out anything other than a small blob. A tiny, faint light flickered into existence, courtesy of Echizen, and Fuji could see that it was a small, folded and cut piece of paper that Eiji held. Echizen reached out as if to touch it, but drew back sharply at the last moment.

"That's not just a piece of paper," Fuji said, feeling a strange energy emanating from it.

"It may be some type of shikigami (2)," Inui said thoughtfully. "That is, some sort of spirit that's been summoned for a purpose."

"Iiya!" The paper had started spinning rapidly, and Eiji let it drop out of his hands.

"Definitely a shikigami," Inui confirmed.

"You wouldn't happen to know what its doing, would you?" Oishi asked, eyeing the little blur of a paper on the floor warily.

"Keep back," Tezuka said tersely, before Inui could reply.

"We have to run, now."

Fuji almost didn't hear Echizen's terse, quiet words, but Tezuka, who was carrying Echizen on his back, surely did.

"Everyone run. Get away from it." Tezuka ordered, and not a moment too late. A fiery blast welled up from where the shikigami was, searing the hallway behind them with heat as they ran out into the courtyard.

"Whew! That's a nasty little piece of paper," Momoshiro let out a low whistle as he looked back at the charred building that they'd run out of.

"Fascinating," Inui remarked.

"I have plenty more, if you find them so interesting." A cool looking blonde stepped out of the shadow of the bell tower, her spiked heels clicking on the hard ground of the temple's courtyard as she came towards them.

Fuji looked at her sharply, and was aware of the others doing the same. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tezuka edging over to the ancient tree at the courtyard's edge, where he set Echizen down to lean against it.

"You!" Tachibana exclaimed, his features darkening as he seemed to recognize her. "Don't think we'll let you destroy this Temple like you did the other sites."

"I see you've brought your friends this time," she said with a sickening smile. "Shall we, then?"

Without further warning, she let loose a flurry of small, cut out papers, which twitched and quivered for a moment before transforming into a flock of large grey birds each with three glowing eyes and a long, hooked beak. The birds dove at them viciously, but the tennis players stood their ground. Fuji aimed cold blasts of energy at them, and was gratified to see them drop rapidly as the others did the same with their own powers. Even Echizen managed to take down a few, though how he did it Fuji couldn't tell. There were so many of them, though, that by the time they had all been dealt with, the demon woman was gone.

Eiji looked around frantically. "Where'd she go?"

A wave of demonic energy pulsed through the Temple grounds, and Fuji turned his gaze towards its source. "The pagoda."

"Leaving us to those birds? We're not that weak!" Momoshiro said indignantly, and Kaidoh grunted in what might have been agreement.

With a nod from Tezuka they quickly and quietly went over to enter the pagoda; except for Echizen, who Tezuka told to stay outside. Though as they approached it, a dark reddish blur caught Fuji's attention from the corner of his eye.

"Orias," Fuji called out coldly, both to alert the others and to address said demon.

Orias, poised to enter the pagoda, paused briefly to flash them a taunting grin before disappearing inside. Tachibana was the first to charge after him, but none of them got more than a few steps before bolts of lightening-like energy shot down in their path.

"Let's see just how much you've improved." The blonde woman leaped down from where she was perched on the pagoda's roof, and a small reddish ball began forming in her hands. This time, though, Fuji recognized it, and Tezuka must have as well as he called for the Guardians to split. The deadly red energy just missed them as they stepped apart, but the demon seemed amused by this, if anything.

Fuji didn't wait to see what she had planned for them next. Looking quickly at his teammates, he could see that they had the same idea as they all began to throw their own types of energy blasts at her. As she began to retaliate with her own crackling bolts, Fuji felt more than saw Tachibana cast a shield over him and Kawamura as Tezuka and Oishi did the same for the rest.

"Difficult boys, aren't you?" the demon hissed, her blonde hair flying wildly around as she began to fall back into a more defensive mode. "But let's see how you do with this!"

A single piece of black cut out paper fluttered out of her hands and landed gently on the ground, unaffected by Momoshiro's attempt to incinerate it mid-air.

And it grew. A nebulous form that could only be described as shadow-like welled up from the tiny piece of paper, filling up an entire end of the courtyard. The night abruptly turned to blackness around them.

oOoOoOo

(1) Japanese Buddhist temples generally consist of several buildings, including the bell tower, sutra depository, main hall, dormitory, dining hall, the lecture hall, and the pagoda; the last of which is traditionally placed in the center both literally and spiritually.

(2) Shikigami are from Japanese mythology, and are said to be spirits that are summoned. Traditionally, they were said to be summoned to protect Onmyoji. Though there are many different types of shikigami portrayed in more "modern mythology", including ones summoned by evil and ones made from cut out pieces of paper. Its a fairly nebulous concept -- you can look it up on wiki if you're still curious.

oOoOoOo

Chapter 14 Notes:

Hmm, I guess that was a bit of a cliffhanger, sorry about that! It just seemed like a good place to stop.

I'm fairly certain that the Tezukas live in a traditional Japanese style house, rather than a western style one.


	16. Chapter 15

_To make up for my slowness before . . . here is another chapter! Many thanks to my few reviewers. :) And also, I changed the summary, as has been suggested more than once, lol. It was really vague! ^^;_

**Chapter 15**

"Unya, where'd everybody go?" Eiji wailed, undoubtedly clinging to whoever was within reach as the darkness covered them. "Oishi, we've got to stay together!"

"Stay calm," Tezuka said authoritatively. "Try to direct your powers towards the middle of the shikigami. That should produce some light as well."

"This should do it," Momoshiro declared, but Fuji only felt a bit of heat from the junior's direction. "Eh? I can't see the flames!"

This was no ordinary darkness. Fuji couldn't even see his own hand, but the pitch-black stalks that suddenly popped out of the shadowy shikigami were strangely visible; and so were the razor sharp teeth at the end of each one.

The slim stalks shot out in all directions, lunging and snapping at them. Fuji heard alarmed shouts and the odd grunt from his teammates nearby, and there was no mistaking the quiet but undeniably female voice among them. But before he could even move, Fuji felt one of the slick tentacles start to slither around his own waist. Starting at the cold touch, he reached down into the darkness to pry it off. But the tentacle wouldn't budge when he pulled at it, and he couldn't see well enough to try and blast it off. A sharp yank from the thing nearly jolted him off of his feet, and slowly but surely it began to pull him closer to the source of the darkness.

But before it could drag him too far, a soft white light spread across the courtyard, turning the pitch black to dim twilight. He could _see _again, and the first thing he noticed was that the other Guardians were in more or less the same predicament as he was. But not for long. Gathering power in his hands, Fuji aimed very carefully and blasted himself free of the tentacle, sending the thing recoiling back as he shattered its end.

"Take that, you slimy thing!" Momshiro called out triumphantly as he set another one on fire.

"BURN, EVIL DARKNESS!"

I was good to see that someone had given Taka a racket this time.

The others made short work of the projections from the dark shikigami, which seemed to be no match for their powers now that they could see, thanks to Echizen's light. Fuji's eyes widened slightly at the thought of his young teammate, and he whirled around only to see that Echizen was still trapped by not one but several of the dark tentacles, which appeared to be constricting around him as they slowly drew him in. At the same moment, Fuji could see several of the others looking that way as well, but Tezuka and Tachibana were on the other end of the courtyard and Momoshiro and Oishi were having problems of their own.

"Ochibi! Don't worry, I'll save you!" Eiji, who was closest to the freshman, deftly scampered over, easily dodging the maze of tentacles that the shikigami was putting out. With one last vicious blast at them of his own, Fuji followed.

"Aah, they're all over you Ochibi!" Eiji hovered beside Echizen, looking anxiously at the tentacles that were latched onto the younger boy. They covered nearly half of his body, wrapping around his ankles, thighs, torso, and even the lower half of his face as they squeezed and tore at his clothing; but still, light emanated from his hand. Just as Eiji looked as though he was thinking of blasting the things with his powers, yet another one started to wrap itself around Echizen. "Stay away!" Eiji threw a stream of fire at it, effectively warding it off.

"Keep them away while I get him free."

Eiji nodded determinedly, and Fuji set to work. Fleetingly, he couldn't help but think that it was a very good thing that Echizen was wearing his boys' uniform and not a a girls' one, or this would be very awkward indeed. Fuji swiftly cut the tentacles off from the shikigami by shattering them with pulses of cold energy, but even disconnected the remains still clung to the small body tenaciously and seemed to squeeze even tighter in response. Echizen let out a muffled cry, and Fuji resorted to using his hands to pry the writhing tentacles off of the struggling girl body. The tentacles had a strong grip – but Fuji's was stronger now.

"Thanks," Echizen said faintly as Fuji wrangled off the last pieces of tentacle.

"Ochibi! Are you okay?" Eiji asked over his shoulder, still sounding upbeat despite the tension in his voice.

"Yes."

Fuji pulled Echizen to his feet, and turned to see the others still battling the tentacles. "Stay behind Eiji, okay?" As he turned to join the others in their attacks, though, he was stopped by a small hand on his arm.

"You have to hit its center," Echizen said haltingly, and raised his eyes to meet Fuji's.

"You mean the middle?" Fuji asked curiously, not at all sure what Echizen meant.

"No. You have to hit the center of its power, its source. The paper that the shikigami was made from," Echizen said slowly, apparently not understanding why there would be any question. But all Fuji saw was a nebulous black form.

"Show me." Without bothering to say anything further, Fuji scooped Echizen up and began to run towards the dark body of the shikigami, half-carrying the injured boy, or rather, girl, as he used one arm to fend off any tentacles that got in the way. Echizen made a small noise of protest, but as Fuji felt a slim pair of arms wind around his neck he knew that the stubborn freshman would cooperate.

"There." Echizen pointed to one of the small, lump-like projections on the upper right side of the shikigami.

"Ah." It looked just like the rest of the shikigami's body, but Fuji trusted Echizen's instincts and sent a stream of cold fire towards the spot Echizen had pointed out.

But Fuji was on the wrong side of the huge shikigami for it to reach its target, and he missed. Tezuka, who was just below the spot, looked questioningly at Fuji as he saw what he was doing.

Fuji pointed to the spot. "Aim there!" he shouted, but before he could say anything else he felt Echizen's arms leave his neck as a pair of tentacles grabbed at the freshman. Echizen scowled and uttered what sounded like an incantation, sending small shocks jolting up the dark stalks. They recoiled but quickly came back, and Fuji wasted no time in blasting them away. But they kept coming, more at Echizen than at him, and Fuji had no choice but to fend them off rather than try to get at the shikigami's center. Kaidoh came up beside him and gave what sounded suspiciously like a hiss of disapproval before joining him.

Suddenly, the tentacles stopped their attacks and began twitching spasmodically before the main body of the shikigami began to throb. Tezuka had apparently listened to him, and was hitting the spot with his energy pulses.

"Hit it there," Tezuka called tersely to the others as he sent another pulse at the spot that Echizen had pointed out as its center.

Now that they no longer had to deal with the tentacles, the rest of the Guardians blasted the shikigami's center with their own powerful attacks, doing as Tezuka said without question. Fuji joined their efforts, though didn't release his hold on his young teammate beside him.

The dark mass of the shikigami's body began to throb more rapidly and unevenly. Following Tezuka's lead, they slowed and then stopped their attacks as they watched it start to shrink in on itself.

"Did we get it?" Eiji asked hopefully.

"I think we--"

Oishi never finished his sentence, as the shikigami's body suddenly exploded in a cloud of tiny black blobs. And they were very sticky black blobs, as they all soon discovered. Fuji calmly wiped a glob of the stuff off of his face, and watched his teammates reactions with thinly veiled amusement.

Echizen absently swiped at his cheek, but otherwise ignored the slimy goo as he pulled away from Fuji and stepped gingerly over to where the shikigami's center had been. He bent down awkwardly and slid to the ground, and started feeling around in the black mess as if he was looking for something.

Tachibana, meanwhile, was the first to head towards the pagoda. The others hurried after him, and Tezuka caught his eyes for a moment before glancing pointedly in Echizen's direction. Fuji gave a slow nod and hung back rather than joining them, instead walking over to kneel beside Echizen.

"Is there something there, Ryo-chan?" he asked lightly, though his expression remained serious.

Echizen didn't even spare him a glance at this, though nodded distractedly as his small fingers fished something out of the muck. Peering over his shoulder, Fuji saw that it was the original black cut out paper from the shikigami, which gradually lightened in Echizen's hands until it was pure white. The sticky black remains of the shikigami then dissipated into little black puffs before vanishing into the air completely. Though it was hard to tell, Fuji suspected that Echizen was just as surprised by this as he was, if the small frown on his face was any indication.

Any thoughts about what Echizen had done to the shikigami flew from Fuji's mind as he heard a loud thud from inside of the pagoda. "Wait here."

Fuji ran into the pagoda, and was greeted by the sight of the two demons slammed up against the wall. Red and blue flames twisted around them, and they appeared to be trapped in a transparent shield held up by Tezuka, Oishi, and Tachibana. The blonde demon let out an unearthly shriek, and Orias raged silently behind her as the flames consumed them both. Slowly, his teammates let up, and the fiery red and cold blue flames died down.

A fine sprinkling of dust floated down to the floor, all that remained of what had been contained by the shield.

"Yosh! We did it, we saved the fifth point!" Eiji cheered and danced around a bit, warding off the silence that had threatened to descend.

"I can't believe we turned them to dust." Oishi looked at the pile of dust with a mixed expression of disbelief and guilt.

Inui adjusted his glasses and bent down to inspect the pile. "Actually, it is only their physical bodies that we destroyed. Since they were not properly banished, their main spirit forms were only sent back to wherever they came from."

"Heh. We probably don't want to know where that is." Momoshiro chuckled, glancing apprehensively at Inui.

"We did what needed to be done," Tezuka said, practical as always. Fuji was inclined to agree. Demons, from what he'd found in his research, were simply evil in that they had no moral sense at all. They may have human attributes, but certainly none of the positive ones like empathy or compassion.

Rather than being jubilant, the atmosphere was subdued as they filed out of the pagoda; though it was a good sort of quiet that was between them. Echizen greeted them with his usual bland expression, though it just didn't work the same when he was in girl form.

"Ochibi we did it! Hey, you're clean!" Eiji, predictably, noticed this only _after_ grabbing Echizen in a hug.

"So are you, senpai."

"Um, I think I need a new racket."

Hopefully, things would go back to normal now. But Fuji caught the small frown that flitted across Echizen's features, and couldn't help but doubt that they had seen the end of this.

oOoOoOo

Chapter 15 Notes:

In many anime/manga series, demons (or youkai, as they are often called) are just another race, one that is very human like but with cool pointy ears, slitted eyes, etc, and that feel human emotions and act very human. In this story, demons are not all nice and cuddly like this. They are a more "traditional" sort of demon, in that they are inherently amoral, often evil, and come from a region that could be called hell (think of the "bad" demons from _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ – they're not nice!).

Another reminder – if the POV is of someone who knows that Echizen is really a boy, the male noun and pronouns will be used to refer to him even when he is in girl form. Think about it: if a boy you knew turned into a girl sometimes, wouldn't you still think of him as a "he"?

And this chapter came out kind of short, sorry about that!


	17. Chapter 16

_Okay, you guys are ticked off, I get it. I'm very sorry! I had to get a new PC. -cowers and hides- At this point I am wondering if I should even bother finishing the sequel. ;_; But I have uploaded the rest of the remaining three chapters of this story to ff dot net now that I have time to fiddle with it, so I should be able to update in a good amount of time even if I can't muck about with copy-pasta'ing chapters and fixing formatting. And my new PC is simply wonderful and ever-so reliable. :)_

_Oh, and I think someone asked about pairings? Call me an aberration of nature, but this story is gen. If you couldn't tell though, I wanted to do either FujiRyo or TezuRyo, thus the subtle implications. xD It just didn't seem to fit in this story, the plot took up too much room if that makes any sense._

_I hope you will like this chapter. ^^_

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 16**

"Momoshiro, Kaidoh, twenty laps."

Tezuka gave the quarreling pair a pointed look, and they immediately dashed off to run around the courts.

Some things never changed.

The few weeks since they had defeated the demons at the fifth point had been uneventful, at least in terms of demons and supernatural activity. But thanks to Inui's new training menu to prepare them for the upcoming tournament, their tennis practices had been a flurry of activity.

"Ochibi! Play doubles with me!"

Tezuka resisted the impulse to cringe in sympathy as the bouncy redhead pulled Echizen over to his court. But if his doubles game with Momoshiro had been any indication, Tezuka supposed that their freshman could use some practice playing doubles, even if it was with Eiji. Echizen's leg and his other injuries had healed nicely, to Tezuka's relief, and the freshman had made a complete recovery.

All in all, things had gone back to normal. And it was driving Tezuka quietly crazy.

Because despite the seeming return to normalcy, the glaring lack of any demon activity struck Tezuka as rather . . . wrong. Though they had saved the fifth point from destruction, something just didn't feel quite right about the whole scenario. Their teamwork had been much better this time, and he felt that they had all done their best. Though all things considered, their victory had seemed hollow somehow and almost too easy. In Tezuka's mind, it wasn't a matter of _if_ more demons were going to try something else, but _when_.

But though Fuji seemed a bit pensive at times, and Inui perhaps somewhat distracted, Tezuka could see no signs that any of the others were as concerned as he was.

With Echizen, though, it was almost impossible to tell.

* * *

"Hey, Adriel-"

"No, Orias." Adriel replied, not even looking up from the tattered old book he was reading.

The red-haired demon sighed dramatically from where he sat across the long table from Adriel, drumming his fingers agitatedly. "You're no fun. _Mara _would have played with me." He frowned slightly. "I can't believe those kids actually managed to dust her."

"And I can't believe that she let them," Adriel said calmly, not a trace of expression on his face. "You were both too careless, even if your intent was to fool them into thinking the fifth point was safe. Not the best of plans to start with anyway, with that tenshi around."

"And here I thought I was the heartless bastard," Orias said wryly.

Adriel spared him a momentary glance. "Its not as though she's been banished. Give her a century or so and I'm sure she'll make it back up." He sipped at his tea, and turned a page.

Orias looked annoyed. "And were you planning to wait for her?" he said with exaggerated patience. "Because you know, I was thinking we might actually, I don't know, _finish_ this? Sometime this year would be good for me."

Porcelain clinked together as Adriel set his teacup down. "Oh, I think we can do much better than that."

Silver eyes met black, and a slow smile spread across one face.

* * *

_. . . it was happening again._

_The temple buildings were still and emptied._

_Energy crackled in the air, and a bright red light burst out of the pagoda's roof, transforming the sacred building into the pile of rubble that it now was. _

_The other buildings soon followed, all too quickly._

_And the demon took flight . . . _

Ryoma nearly bolted upright in his bed, and shook his head slightly in an attempt to clear the sleep from his mind. As he had suspected, they had only saved the fifth point temporarily; undoubtedly, that white-haired demon and who knows what other ones were going to try to take it down again. And if his dream had been any indication . . . it was going to be _very_ soon. Because this dream had been a little different than the others, in that it was almost like he was watching something that had already happened, rather than watching something as it happened.

Definitely not good.

Wasting no time, he threw on a pair of shoes, shorts and a lightweight blue shirt and then crept downstairs to use the phone, being careful not to make any noise. Though no one would ever guess it by looking at the man, Ryoma's father was actually a very light sleeper. Ryoma carefully picked up the phone and dialed, deciding to call Tezuka first. It was almost 1:00 am, so he called his mobile, hoping that he wouldn't wake up the rest of the Tezuka family.

After a few rings, Tezuka picked up, and in hushed tones Ryoma briefly explained about his dream. To Ryoma's surprise, it took no convincing on his part to get his buchou to agree that they should go to the temple right away to check it out.

But last time, they had been lucky. Ryoma only hoped that their luck would hold, and that they would all be able to sneak out and make it to the Temple without getting caught by their families.

* * *

The front door clicked shut quietly as Ryoma left, and Nanjiroh frowned as he stepped out from behind the stairwell where he'd been listening.

He knew that something had been up with that boy lately.

What _had_ the boy been talking about? Demons, a temple, sneaking out in the middle of the night? Whatever it was that child of his was up to, it didn't sound like it involved any midnight liaisons with cute girls, especially not if that stuffy team captain he'd been on the phone with was involved.

That left another, more uncertain option; one which made Nanjiroh faintly uneasy. The book that they'd given him, so many years ago, was gone from the attic, as he'd discovered while searching frantically for some reading material that Rinko had hidden from him. And Ryoma had been spending an unusual amount of time at friend's houses, and kept coming home with all kinds of bruises and cuts. Nanjiroh hadn't said anything, of course, but there was only so much that could escape even his attention.

Though he'd had his suspicions, Nanjiroh hadn't really known what all this was about, and had decided to leave the boy alone for the time being. But after hearing him mention _demons_ . . . he knew what it had to be, and what he had to do. No matter how potentially bad of an idea it was.

Slowly, he picked up the phone, and dialed a number he'd hoped never to have to call again.

"I need to speak with Saitou Kazuma . . . . yes, its important . . . . I know. Just tell him that Echizen Nanjiroh has an update of sorts for him."

* * *

Even though he was still several blocks away from the temple, there was no mistaking the strong surge of demonic energy that was coming from the area. As soon as he sensed it, Tachibana broke into a run, and didn't stop until he was there.

The sight that greeted him as he rounded the last corner was not a promising one at all. Of all of them, only Echizen, Tezuka, Fuji, and Kawamura were there already, and it looked as though they weren't faring well at all. The pagoda was pulsing ominously and emitting a faint reddish glow, but the three Guardians were otherwise occupied by the masses of shadowy, many-limbed creatures that were surrounding them. Fuji and Kawamura blasted them with their fiery attacks, and Tezuka provided shielding while standing protectively in front of Echizen, who had reverted to girl form.

But even as Tachibana ran over to join them, he could tell that they wouldn't be fast enough.

Sure enough, the pagoda began to collapse with almost painful slowness, just as they finished off the last of the shadow creatures. The other temple buildings followed suit, turning to dust without warning as the pagoda crumbled to the ground. Amidst the rising cloud of dust, a shadowy male form became visible as it stepped over the rubble.

"But, I thought we got him already . . ." Kawamura spoke what was on all of their minds as they recognized the demon with the blood red hair.

"We never did finish things, did we?" Fuji said coolly, his eyes trained on the demon.

Orias leaped easily to the top of the pile that had been the pagoda, and paused for a brief moment to look down at them. "Well, _I _certainly am finished here." He smiled smugly. "If you had a chance before, it's gone now. Don't think that you lot can do anything to stop us now." With a grace that belied his size, he launched himself skywards as his form began to fade into the air. "But by all means, try. I'd kill to play with your tenshi a little early." As he spoke his voice grew fainter, and his last words were barely a whisper in the wind as he disappeared entirely.

Tachibana clenched his fist beside him, both angry at the arrogant demon and at himself for arriving too late. "There has to be some way to find out where the center for the final ritual is so we can stop it," he said fiercely, actually missing the presence of Seigaku's data man.

"Echizen," Tezuka began quietly. "Can you follow him?"

"Probably." The freshman shrugged, though looked mildly taken aback by whatever it was that Tezuka was suggesting.

Tezuka nodded. "Do it."

"Here?"

"We'll move to the park across the street," Tezuka said decisively. "We don't want to be here when the authorities come. And we need to wait nearby for the others to arrive."

They went quietly over to the park and situated themselves behind a small thicket of trees, leaving Kawamura just outside to look out for the other Guardians. Echizen, to Tachibana's surprise, promptly laid down on the grass and closed his eyes.

"This is no time for a nap," he told the freshman, annoyed yet slightly amused.

Echizen opened his eyes part way. "What time do _you _sleep?"

"Enough. Echizen, go." Tezuka said shortly, and Tachibana bristled slightly at the reprimand before he realized that it probably wasn't directed at him. Echizen, however, simply closed his eyes, and soon went limp.

"Ah, Tachibana, Echizen-kun isn't sleeping," Fuji explained. "He left his body by astral projection to see if he can follow Orias."

"Oh?" Tachibana managed, not having known that Echizen could even do that. "That's different."

"Mm." Fuji agreed, at least as best as Tachibana could tell.

Minutes passed in silence, until he rest of Seigaku began to arrive. Oishi showed up first, slightly out of breath, and Inui came shortly after. Both expressed some curiosity over why Echizen was asleep, and Tezuka gave them a concise account of what had happened before explaining what Echizen was doing.

"A most efficient idea," Inui said approvingly. "It is imperative that we find the center point as soon as possible. However, given the space between each of the five points around it, it may be some distance away." He pulled a notebook out of his jacket pocket, and carefully marked something down inside of it. He then turned it towards them, showing a carefully drawn diagram of a five-pointed star drawn over a map of the area.

"The center point will be somewhere inside this center area of the star." He pointed to the pentagon-shaped section that made up the middle of the star. "And we are currently here, at the fifth point." His finger settled on the tip of one of the star's arms. "Though we don't know the specific location of the center point yet, in the interest of speed it would be advisable to start heading in the general direction."

"But everyone's not here yet," Oishi protested. "How will they find us?"

"We can send them a message on their phones. Tell them to head toward central Tokyo, and we can send them more information when we have it," Inui replied calmly.

"Agreed," Tezuka said heavily. "We've waited long enough as it it."

"And they may not even be able to make it," Tachibana added.

"I'm sure they'll do their best," Fuji said, though it was probably more for Oishi's benefit than anyone else's.

"Ah . . ." Oishi looked down at Echizen's still form, undoubtedly wondering who was going to carry him.

But it was Tezuka, to Tachibana's surprise, that bent down and picked up the unconscious freshman.

"Its a good thing Echizen's so light, ne?" Fuji smiled at Tezuka, glancing over at the small body in his arms.

Tezuka shot Fuji a look that bordered on reproachful. "Let's go."

As they met Kawamura and headed out of the park, a loud voice caught their attention from behind.

"Oi, senpai! Wait up!" Momoshiro came through the trees and ran to catch up with them. "Ah, I'm sorry I'm late!" he apologized. "You wouldn't believe what I had to agree to to get my little brother to . . . eh? What's wrong with Echizen?" he asked worriedly as he noticed Echizen being carried.

Tachibana tuned out the conversation as Oishi started to explain. Momoshiro's presence certainly was disruptive, but Tachibana was still glad that he had shown up. He had no doubts that they would need all the help they could get if they wanted to defeat Orias and prevent the rising of an even bigger threat.

But surely, there must be nine Guardians for a reason . . . could they manage with only seven?

* * *

Chapter 16 Notes:

Wow. I actually don't have anything to say here! -is amazed-


	18. Chapter 17

_Since I took so long to update the last chapter, here is a new chapter early! I hope you will like it . . . if anyone is actually reading this, that is. ;_; My sincere thanks to **yoshikochan**, the one lone reviewer of the previous chapter. -gives cookies- :) _

_

* * *

_

**Chapter 17**

With Tezuka in the lead and Tachibana close behind, the Guardians, minus Kaidoh and Eiji, hurried through the subdued city streets and into the heart of Tokyo. Bus and train service was virtually nonexistent at this hour of the night, so they'd had to go on foot. But their tennis training was proving to be useful for more than just tennis, and they were able to keep a fairly fast pace.

But Echizen still showed no signs of waking, and they were very nearly in the general area of the star's center. Just as Tezuka was about to call for them all to slow down, he felt movement in his arms and glanced down to see Echizen stirring.

Gold-brown eyes shot open, and turned fleetingly towards the top of the cityscape. "Tokyo Tower. Orias and Adriel are there."

It was a windy night, and the quietly spoken words undoubtedly went unheard by the others. "Our destination is Tokyo Tower," Tezuka called out louder, looking briefly behind him at the others.

"A bold choice, for its sheer conspicuousness," Inui commented, sounding surprised.

"Nice work, Echizen!" Momoshiro exclaimed.

Echizen just looked annoyed, despite the junior's praise. "Ne, buchou, want to put me down now?" He squirmed a little, and met Tezuka's eyes with an expression that was somewhere between embarrassed and irritated.

"Of course." Tezuka slowed down and carefully lowered Echizen to the ground, also embarrassed that he hadn't thought to do so right away. In girl form or not, it was all too easy to forget that the small twelve-year-old was far stronger than he looked. Echizen hit the ground running, and easily kept pace with him and Tachibana at the front.

They reached the Tower within minutes, and, as it had been at the Gymnasium, found the surrounding area strangely deserted. Fuji and Inui made short work of the locked and barred doors, freezing and shattering them along with the security system. Inside, dim auxiliary lighting filtered through the huge tanks of fish that made up the first floor's aquarium, casting a greenish glow on the floor and walls.

But the security system was not all there was that prevented their full entry into the Tower, as they soon found as they scattered around in search of entrances to go up from the first floor.

"Ow!" Momoshiro, who had been the first to charge up the stairs in the center, stumbled backwards as a translucent wall shimmered in front of him.

"A barrier?" Oishi's eyes widened.

Inui and Tachibana went over to where Momoshiro was and carefully poked at the air in front of the stairs. Sure enough, they both drew back as if burned.

"Definitely a barrier of some sort," Tachibana confirmed.

Inui frowned. "It certainly radiates demonic energy. The demons must have put it up to keep us out."

Tezuka strode over to take a closer look, as Kawamura and Oishi trailed behind him. "Can we get through?"

"Only one way to find out!" Momoshiro exchanged a look with Inui, and the two sent a strong blast of fire and cold at the barrier.

The barrier remained completely intact.

"Let me try." Tachibana focused a high-powered energy pulse at it, but the effect was the same. Nothing.

"What's taking you guys so long down there?" Echizen's voice sounded far away, and Tezuka turned sharply towards it as he realized that he hadn't been paying attention to where their freshman was.

Echizen came down the stairs on the left side of the lobby, and peered around the curved corner to look at them inquisitively.

At that moment Tezuka felt quite, quite ridiculous.

"Ah . . . maybe we should try the other side," Oishi said sheepishly.

Tezuka nodded in agreement, concealing his own embarrassment, and brought up the rear as they all walked over to follow Echizen up the other staircase. But before they even got near him, Tachibana, who was in the front, stopped dead in his tracks, and Tezuka narrowly avoided being a part of the multi-person pile-up in front of him.

"What's the big idea?" Momoshiro demanded.

Tachibana gave them a frustrated look. "There's a barrier here too," he said tightly.

"What barrier?" Echizen looked at them strangely, and stepped easily off of the bottom stair and back onto the first floor. "There's nothing there."

"There is a barrier here, as well as at all of the other ways up into the tower," Tezuka told him. "For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to affect you."

"Oh? I wonder why," Echizen said, tilting his head to the side as if to try and see the barrier in front of him. He reached his hand through it and held it there for a second, and then drew it slowly back. "Hm."

"What?" Momoshiro asked impatiently.

Echizen looked back at him nonchalantly. "There's something there all right. I don't know how to get rid of it though, whatever it is."

"Well you certainly can't go up by yourself," Oishi said firmly. "We've got to find a way to get through!"

Just then, Tezuka picked up the sound of off-key humming coming from somewhere behind them. As it came closer, the clapping of sandals on the hard polished floor could also be heard.

"Looks like my timing is perfect, as usual."

Not three meters away from them stood a man, clad in monks' clothing and with disheveled black hair. He wore a slight grin and had a relaxed demeanor, but Tezuka immediately sensed that this man was more than he seemed.

"Who are you?" He asked levelly, not knowing if this intruder was friend or foe.

But the man didn't pay him any attention, and instead turned his gaze on Echizen. Tachibana and Oishi, who were closest to the freshman, immediately tensed; but Echizen didn't seem worried.

"Oi, shounen! Going to introduce me to your friends? Or maybe that's shoujo, hehe. You're cute as a girl."

Momoshiro gaped, and looked like he was going to say something, but Echizen beat them all to it.

"Baka oyaji. What are you doing here?" Echizen scowled at the man, but seemed quite surprised by his presence.

"_That_ guy is your _dad_?" Momoshiro exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Yeah."

After taking a longer look at the monk, Tezuka did notice the resemblance. He didn't look like much, for a world-class athlete; but then, his son didn't look like much of an athelete either.

"Echizen Nanjiroh, at your service! You kids sure do run fast, it was a pain keeping . . ." the monk trailed off as he noticed the Guardians were all looking at him incredulously. "Ah, right. Well, let's see about this barrier, thing, over there, hmm?"

The senior Echizen walked through them and stopped in front of the barrier, and then pulled an ofuda (1) out of his robes. In a flash, he threw it at the barrier, which sparked as he put his hands together around a strand of amber colored beads.

"What are you kids still standing around for? Go on, its safe now." The monk met his eyes, and at that moment Tezuka saw a fierce intentness in them that compelled him to step forward to meet the barrier.

And the barrier, in that limited area, had opened. Tezuka passed through unharmed, meeting a shocked looking Echizen on the other side.

"Since when can you do things like that?" Echizen demanded, looking down at his father from the stairs as the rest of the Guardians passed through the barrier.

"Heh. You didn't think I really quit tennis _just_ because I was bored, did you?" The monk winked.

Echizen just looked at him disbelievingly, and then replied with a smirk. "And here I thought you were just lazy."

Tachibana, who had been scrutinizing the elder Echizen, suddenly seemed to realize who he was other than their freshman's father. "You're . . . Samurai!"

The monk raised an eyebrow. "Sheesh, don't you kids ever stop thinking about tennis? Get up there and kill some demons already!"

Tezuka inclined his head towards the man. "We intend to. Two of us haven't arrived yet; can you wait here and open the barrier for them when they do?"

"Sure, whatever," the monk answered offhandedly, and then made shooing motions with his hands. "Go on, go on."

"Thanks, oyaji," Echizen threw over his shoulder, and Tezuka almost missed the look that passed between them before a grin spread across the monk's face.

"And look after my little girl now, you hear?"

* * *

Ryoma scowled and felt his face flush as his father called after the others. Couldn't the old man meet _anyone_ he knew without embarrassing him? Though Ryoma had been shocked to see him here, and even more surprised by his spiritual powers, his father was obviously the same annoying guy he'd always been. Which was somewhat of a relief, in a strange sort of way. Ignoring the quiet snickers from somewhere behind him, Ryoma followed behind Tezuka, Oishi, and Tachibana as they climbed the stairs.

"Um, senpai? Does anyone know where we're going?" Momo asked tentatively.

Oishi opened his mouth as if to reply, but then closed it and frowned. "Well, we know they're somewhere in Tokyo Tower, so we just have to look for them, I guess."

"Ah, that'll take a long time!"

Ryoma rolled his eyes. "They're not on this floor. They're somewhere above us. Can't you tell?"

"Saa, I guess you're more perceptive about these things, Ryo-chan," Fuji said easily.

"Let us know as soon as you sense them," Tezuka said, and Ryoma nodded.

They passed the second floor easily, but the relative peace did not last as they reached the third floor.

"Anything?" Tachibana asked as they paused, and Ryoma shook his head uncertainly.

"They're not here." But something still didn't feel quite right.

Just as they were rounding the stairs to go up to the fourth floor, Ryoma heard an alarmed cry and a thud from behind. Kawamura, who had been bringing up the rear, was being pulled away by a long, thin tendril of darkness. Even as his timid self, Kawamura wasted no time in blasting it with fire, and Momo, who had been in front of him, immediately joined in. The flare of fire briefly lit up the dark hall of the fourth floor's wax museum, and Ryoma's eyes narrowed as they followed the shadowy tendril to its source.

And it _was_ a shadow, coming from one of the many wax figures on display. Struck with a terrible thought, Ryoma quickly looked around at the other wax figures, only to see that their shadows seemed somehow more . . . solid, even in this dim light.

"Buchou . . ."

It had taken both Momo and Fuji's help, but Kawamura was just about free. Tezuka looked sharply over at Ryoma, and then to the other wax figures that Ryoma was watching.

Tezuka tensed, apparently having noticed it as well. "Everyone up the stairs. Now."

Out of the darkness, another one of the shadowy strands darted towards them at lightening speed, knocking Momo off his feet just as Kawamura was freed.

"Momo!" Kawamura exclaimed, but as he put out his hand to blast at the thing, another one sped towards him and wrapped around his torso, and then wound itself around Fuji.

Fuji did not look happy. His eyes were nearly as icy as the blasts he sent at the shadows, but Ryoma never got to see if any of them hit. Before he had a chance to do anything at all, he found himself being pushed into Tachibana by Tezuka.

"Go." Tezuka said tersely.

Tachibana just nodded, and hauled Ryoma up the stairs and onto the fourth floor in a near run.

"Hey!" Ryoma protested. "We should stay down there with them."

"Don't be stubborn. Your teammates will do better if they aren't worrying about you."

Ryoma didn't believe that for an instant, but decided not to waste his time arguing with the strong-willed Fudomine buchou.

The fourth floor was quiet. So quiet, in fact, that it made the thumps, cries, and crashes from the floor below seem all the louder. It was also much darker than the other floors had been - but it was not nearly as dark as it _should_ have been, with all the lights off as they were.

"I wonder where the light is coming from," he muttered absently.

Tachibana looked at him curiously, but understanding soon dawned on his face. "Good question. But do we really want to find out now?" he asked wryly.

"Why don't you go back and help the others. I'm going to look around.," Ryoma said off-handedly. But the noise from below was dying down, and he could hear muffled exclamations as feet pounded up the stairs. Confident that his teammates had escaped, Ryoma started out to look for the source of the light.

"Have you no self preservation instincts?" Tachibana said exasperatedly as he followed, but Ryoma just ignored him as he walked over to the fourth floor's art gallery. It wasn't the demons, but there was definitely something here; something like they'd encountered before that first time at Sensoji Temple.

And it was coming from the elevator.

* * *

"Hey, where'd they go?" Momoshiro looked around bewilderedly as they stepped out of the stairwell and onto the fourth floor, only to find that Echizen and Tachibana weren't anywhere in sight.

Oishi looked worried. "I hope nothing happened to them."

That was a possibility, but Tezuka figured it was equally likely that Echizen had gone wandering off again. And Tachibana, of course, wouldn't have let him go off by himself.

"Spread out and see if you can find them, and the elevator as well. We have no time for stairs." Tezuka was a little uneasy about riding an elevator up to the observatories, which is what they would be doing if they didn't find the demons here on the fourth floor. But they hardly had a choice in the matter, as they couldn't waste time climbing such a huge number of stairs that were probably closed off anyway. And it wasn't as though they could _fly_ up the Tower.

It wasn't long before they found both of the things that they were looking for. Tezuka stopped where he stood, to better access the situation, and the others halted as well when they saw it.

On the back wall of the art gallery was the elevator, which was putting out more than just an unnatural green glow. Its door was wide open, and from it came a tangle of green, plant-like vines as big around as his forearm. Like snakes, they twisted around in the air as they hovered just outside of the elevator, as if waiting for something to strike at.

"Interesting," Inui commented. "Though I would estimate a greater than ninety percent probability that it will attack us should be attempt to approach the elevator."

"Make that a hundred." Tachibana, who was standing behind one of the support pillars to their left, replied grimly. "It won't let us anywhere near the elevator." Looking closer, Tezuka could see Echizen peering out from behind Tachibana, who had him pinned to the pillar.

"We'll just have to defeat it then, ne?" Fuji said, smiling that smile of his that tended to precede Bad Things. But for once, Tezuka was glad to see it.

"This one's a shikigami," Echizen spoke up. "But its center is somewhere in the elevator. The tentacles are in the way."

"Then they'll have to go." With a nod from Tezuka, the Guardians closed in on the elevator, and a stern glance was enough to get Echizen to stay put.

Fuji and Tachibana hit it first, and the pulse of unseen energy combined with the cold fire to form a wave that immediately shattered nearly half of the green stalks. Inui and Oishi, following their example, paired up to do the same, while Tezuka simply sent his blasts at it alongside Kawamura and Momoshiro.

But just when only a few small tentacles remained at the base of the elevator door, more began shoot off from them.

Again, the Guardians destroyed them, but more kept coming.

"We need to get them all at once," Tachibana called. "So they can't keep multiplying!"

"Mmm." Tezuka agreed, and at a three count they all tried hurling their powers at it at once. Despite their best efforts, a few remained, and quickly grew in number before they could even get a glimpse at the shikigami's main body.

"This isn't working!" Momoshiro gritted out as he threw another fireball. "We need to hit it from more angles at once, we keep missing spots!"

"Tezuka, Oishi, Tachibana; I would suggest that you all combine your powers with the others, so as to better diffuse them so that they hit more evenly," Inui said urgently.

It was a solid idea, and the writhing green stalks were soon destroyed by their combined assaults as they did as Inui had suggested. And this time, not one remained, leaving the main body of the shikigami exposed. It was a pale, nearly translucent green blob, with a mouth that took up almost its whole body. But no more stalks came from it, and it seemed relatively nonthreatening without them.

"Whew, look at those teeth," Momoshiro said in amazement. "And its so big!"

"Not for long." Though Tezuka had long since known that Fuji was not nearly as gentle as he often seemed, he was still somewhat taken aback by his fierce, almost ruthless fighting style and couldn't help but wonder what had brought it on. Without even pausing, the tensai sent a strong blast at the shikigami's main body, engulfing the entire thing in cold fire. It froze, and after a tense moment it finally shattered into many cold, sticky pieces.

"Nice job, senpai." Echizen had come out from behind the pillar, and walked over to the elevator. "What a mess."

Tezuka led the others into the elevator as well, and they just managed to all fit in. The gelatinous green blobs everywhere made it an even tighter squeeze, but before Tezuka had even pressed the button they had vanished as Echizen found the original piece of paper from the shikigami.

"That's much better." Fuji directed a smile at their freshman.

They didn't even get off at the main observatory, since as soon as the elevator doors opened Echizen declared that there was nothing there.

And that left the special observatory, two hundred and fifty meters up and near the top of Tokyo Tower.

* * *

Japanese Vocabulary:

_oyaji_ – old man [used here to refer to one's father]

_shounen_ – boy

_shoujo_ – girl

1. Ofuda: a small piece of paper with holy or magical spells written on it, used as a talisman or a weapon against evil/demons.

* * *

Chapter 17 Notes:

Yes, Tokyo Tower does have an aquarium, a wax museum, and a "Trick Art Gallery". I have no idea about its stairs/elevator, though I'd imagine that visitors would only take an elevator to the observatories up top. They sure as heck don't let you take the stairs to the top of the Empire State Building, anyway!

"Samurai" is what Echizen Nanjiroh was called when he was a pro tennis player. Nanjiroh is a rather quirky character, so I did have some trouble figuring out how to write him. Hopefully, my portrayal isn't too off!

Regarding the use of Japanese words - I know that "fangirl Japanese" drives some people up the wall (and I understand why!), but if you don't like what very little I have used, well, I'm sorry but I'm not changing it. I only watch the subbed version, so when I "hear" the characters in my head as I write the story, some bits of Japanese leak through, which is fitting as the characters are all Japanese (this is not, say, Fullmetal Alchemist). I try to only use the more distinctive words that are easily recognized (such as titles or what characters call each other), and included a glossary in case you watch the show in English or only read the manga.

* * *

_I hope I entertained you! And remember: every review is like a poke that says, 'hey, someone is actually reading this and wants you to update'! ;)_


End file.
